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

Week 6

October 15^th, 2012

HIII!!!

Family Hello!! I feel as though I have received some really quality emails from ya'll today! And promised letters in the mail...nothing better! 

This morning has been a bit trying because our wonderfully classy Laundromat, the Washanderia, is just not my favorite place in the world and the dryer died half way through so I got to ride here to the library with soggy leggings, delightful. However the point is your emails have just cheered me right up I forgot all about it!!! :D

Oh this week has been a good one! First of all today is day one of transfer 2 in the field.  Man that last one just flew by! I only have 6 more weeks of training that stresses me a bit. Hopefully I will be able to speak just a bit of Spanish by the time this one ends. Also today is my 102 day as a missionary can I get a what, what? I asked for gifts from the elders in my district but apparently it wasn't as big of a deal to them as it is to me. Awkward!

We had zone training this week, which was great! We talked numbers of how the new missionary age is going to change things for our missions and I am just so pumped up!! I want there to be just as many sisters as there are elders serving in the world! My mission president is so great he just really cares about all of us! I love this mission!

Other good news we finally had investigators come to church!! We had part of a family come and EVA! I love Eva so much!! She didn't seem quite sure about coming when we had last talked to her, her friend is a member and she said she would get a ride with her if she wanted to come. She took her citizenship test this weekend, which we were helping her prepare for so on Saturday morning. Hermana Clayton and I heart-attacked her door wishing her good luck. That did it I'm pretty sure :) She could tell how much we just love her and she decided to come see what we are all about. We were walking into the building and we could see her a bit down the hall and I thought I was going to die! We went right up to her and gave her a big hug and kiss on the cheek (normal for Latinas, I had a nightmare the other night that I was kissing people's cheeks when I got home. That just didn't fly with white people) Anyways what a miracle! 

I had to give my testimony as part of the program (Yup that is 3 out of 5 Sundays being here that I have had to public speak in Spanish, I love my life!) in sacrament meeting. After sacrament things got a little crazy. 

The ward here is really so great I love the people so much. However, most members are recent converts so they are still learning their stuff, it is very common for people to argue, a lot, during the classes. There has been a throw down in one class or another every Sunday since I have been here. It is very stressful! I mean I don't know what people are "raising their voices" about because, I can't always understand it, all I know is whoever is talking the loudest and fastest wins. It was interesting having investigators there. We have to go to some damage control this week because the eternal marriage lesson got so heated.  We are really nervous we may have lost one of them. :( As I was sitting there though I was just praying so hard that everything would turn out ok and I had a distinct feeling that He knows what He is doing and is in charge so we just need to trust Him.

We also are teaching a couple of people English. We are teaching Eva and a recent convert Tomy. Tomy has quite a difficult time, he really tries hard though. He is great because he helps me with my Spanish at the same time so it’s great for both of us!

I am so grateful for this gospel and for the fact that it is real and true. I know I have much less to fear and stress over because Christ is the Head and knows what to do. I love this work and I learn so much everyday! Life is grand!! I love you all!  I am going to try to upload some pictures, we'll see how that goes :) LOVE YOU!

Hermana Hansen

  Hermana Clayton & Hermana Hansen

                                                      Comfort Food!

                                           A graffiti wall in the hood!

                                 My District at a Cactus Farm trying to be fierce!

Week 5

October 8, 2012 

HELLO FAMILY!!!

Well what an AMAZING Conference Weekend!

Ok Let us just talk about the missionary announcement… WHOOOOOOT! I am soo pumped about that! I hope so much that that encourages more sisters to serve!!

I have only been out for 3 months and I can not believe all that I have learned about life, the Gospel, the Atonement, love and people. Missions are so amazing! I know everybody is different and they are not for every girl or whatever but I personally believe every sister should serve! All of us missionaries around here were talking about the announcement after and how excited we were and then we realized we were going to be able to tell our children "Well you know in my day..." missionary stories. Aww yeah!

Anyways I was sufficiently pumped about that! Also another temple in AZ that is great! We have been doing pretty well lately as far as temples go in our home state!

It was such a different experience watching conference as a missionary. I have really grown to love conference over the past few years but as a missionary its one of the biggest weekends of the year!! Hna Clayton and I have been counting down for conference for a couple of weeks. I really loved Pres. Uchtdorf's talk. He is such a great speaker. He gave me the reminder to enjoy every minute of my short mission. I also really enjoyed Elder Oak's talk. Elder Holland. Ohhh Elder Holland, I love that man! He just always hits it home for me. He gave a similar talk to that one in the MTC, which we got to watch in our ward conferences at home, but we also watched it on Friday during a zone train meeting. I felt that the phrase "You can't go back" came up quite a few times in conference. That was really powerful. Also Elder Bednar's talk was great! He also gave a similar one to that at the MTC that I got to watch a couple of times. So amazing! ANYWAYS. I loved it!

This week has been a pretty good one. My Spanish gets worse and worse everyday so that's lovely. I still have faith it will get there. We have been working really hard with our investigators right now trying to get them to progress. They all have something holding them back, which can be pretty discouraging. I know though that the Lord is working with them as well and His timing for everything is perfect. We are just trying to stay positive and keep on keepin on. :)

We met such a great couple this week. Their names are Arturo y Adriana. Arturo has already taken the missionary lessons somewhere else and he want to be baptized. He wants us to teach his wife now. They are so sweet! They are just very, very busy and it’s hard to set up appointments with them. They have been to church once and they liked it a lot. Adriana seems very open and she really likes us, so we have a lot of hope for them!

I'm trying to come up with a funny story to tell ya'll but I can't think of any. Not that we aren't funny...because we are. We are hilarious. Just know that much at least. :)

All is well here. We are working hard and finding something to laugh about everywhere we go! I love Hna Clayton she is such a great missionary. I have so much I can learn from her! Life is great! I love you all!!!!!!!!

Hermana Hansen

Week 4

Shalommm!! I mean hola.

How is everyone?? It sounds like you all had a wonderfully fun weekend!! I was thinking about the big family shin-dig last night (in a very non-trunky, focused kind of way) and I'm glad to hear it went well!! I'm glad to hear that baby Drew did well. Dang we are just such a blessed family!! Those grandbabies could NOT be cuter!! I am also glad to hear Shawn made it back safe and sound from Peru! What a great week!

My week was less eventful; it was kind of a rough one. We are having a hard time finding people who are ready for us. We have a lot of faith that they are out there though and we just need to be more diligent and find them!

I still do not speak Spanish. I have been able to understand a lot more though, that is of course until they talk to me and then I'm pretty sure they switch to Chinese because I don't understand a thing. :) I will get it though. un dia.

Yesterday was quite the "special" day. Some of the elders in my district had a baptism, which is soo great! They asked Hna Clayton and I, just a couple hours before if we would sing a duet....HAHAHAHA oh wait really? and then give a talk. Ha well, as ya'll know I do not sing. I also do not yet speak Spanish so I was just a bit stressing about this whole situation. We got up to sing and thank goodness Hna Clayton can sing because well I did not do super great. I can't tell you the number of times I just think to myself "I wish my sisters were here to see this" I know ya'll would be laughing right with me afterwards. We also gave our little sphill and I forgot how to say most things in Spanish and I just did a bit and Hna Clayton brought it home thankfully.

However during all this stress Hna Clayton and I were able to help the mother and daughter of the family that were being baptized to the font and out of it. We were with them as they watched the father get baptized first and then it was their turn. I could just feel so much love in the font area! The love the family has for each other, the love we the missionaries and the ward members felt for them and the love that our Father in Heaven has for them. 

The love that Father has for each of us is so real. He knows each of us and wants nothing more than for His children to return to Him. I love that I have a knowledge of that truth. God really is a Loving Heavenly Father.

We also had a great experience this week with our new good friend Eva. She is a bit older and is from Peru. She is just so great I love her so much! She is trying to learn English so she can take her citizen's test. We met her while visiting a sister in our ward. Eva came over to get help from that sister. Hna Flores was trying to teach her basic phrases but bless her little heart she was telling Eva all wrong. Ha we offered to go over and help Eva with English and she was so excited. We have been back a couple of times, once by appointment and the other time we just decided to drop in and see how she was. She is always so excited to see us! The last time we went over we asked if it would be ok to start the language study with a prayer. She was very excited by this idea and she asked how we pray so I taught her how we get to just have a conversation with God and tell Him the things of our heart. She really liked this and when we were ready for a closing prayer she was excited to try it. She gave such a great sincere, sweet prayer and when she was done she looked up and said how was that? We told her it was perfect and she bowed her head and started to cry. She said she felt something different. The spirit was so strong in the room! We gave her a big hug and kiss on the cheek (I'm worried when I get home I will just be kissing everybody's cheeks because its so normal here) and set up a time to come back. We are going back tomorrow and I and just praying SO hard that she can remember the spirit she felt after she prayed. I love her so much! She is just the sweetest most sincere person I have ever met.

Other than that family it has been a pretty typical week. I am PUMPED for General Conference this weekend! There is nothing like hearing the words of our Prophet and Apostles! Also I get to watch it in English so I am just smiling real big!! I love you all and hope you have just the grandest week!!!

Hermonica Hansen