Vamanos, Come On!

Hola everyone!!!!

What another amazing week in the CCM.
In reference to my subject line, one of the main discussions we have with the Latinas is about Dora the Explorer, couldn't tell you why but we think it's so funny. Apparently Dora taught us spanish as kids but it taught them English. So in our theme song we sing "Come on, vamanos!" And in their's it goes, "Vamanos, come on!" And we literally just sit there singing the theme song and DIE laughing because it's like one of the only ways we can communicate. 

We have 2 new "investigators" (also our teachers) and it's really frustrating when my heart is full of things to say, but I have no idea what the words are in Spanish. A few times this week I was feeling a little discouraged about how slow the language is coming. But on Friday, Elder Renlund and his wife came to talk to us. At the beginning he took the time to shake EVERY single missionary's hand and asked where we were from. (There are about 300 of us.) He repeated over and over that it is a right a responsibility to find out that my call is from God. I was so thankful for his message, because it reminded me that GOD called me. And if God called me, He will provide a way. I know that the moment I was set apart as a missionary I was given the authority and power to fulfill all of my responsibilities, including Spanish!!! I am here for a REASON, and I can't wait to find it. I know there are people in Nebraska that are waiting for MY message, and it's gonna be in SPANISH! 

Although there have been times I've felt discouraged, the blessings from God outweigh the bad every time.

First of all, I FOUND MY BOOK OF MORMON! I lost it on Sunday and prayed so hard every single day that I would find it. My sweet lil companion is so patient with me, she retraced our steps with me every single day and checked the lost and found with me like 3 times a day. In the midst of my search one day I ran into the president of the CCM and he said something like, "you'll find it, I think the Lord would want Hermana Hansen to have her Book of Mormon right?" That honestly gave me so much faith and I prayed that night like I've never prayed before, and the next morning I walked into the cafeteria and had the thought to look in the cubbies they have by the walls. AND THERE IT WAS. I almost cried tears of joy because in that moment I KNEW Heavenly Father heard my prayers and cared enough to help me. I've never put anything in those cubbies before so I would have never thought to look there on my own. Heavenly Father LOVES us you guys.  

Another tender mercy I had was on Monday. They challenged us to speak ONLY spanish for the entire day, which was so hard. By lunch my brain was exploding, it was rough. But shortly afterward it started DOWN pouring outside. Full on lightening and thunder storm. In my companion's words, "it's like Noah's flood up in here!" Me and my companion realized we left our windows open in our casa and all of our books were next to the windows and we were afraid they were gonna get soaked. So we RAN all the way home huddled under this tiny umbrella, splashing through the massive puddles and trying not to get struck by lightening. It was a SIGHT to see, we were shrieking and laughing the entire way, and when we finally got home we were DRENCHED! Don't worry, our books were safe. We closed the windows and piled on all of our rain clothes, and shoved a bunch of extra jackets in our rain coats for the other hermanas in our district. It was so funny we had to take a picture. The funniest part was that by the time we got back to our classroom the rain had completely stopped HAHA. Also in the words of my companion after we returned in head-to-toe rain outfits looking up at the clear sky: "The Lord works in mysterious ways." Good times.

Last but not least I want to share something our CCM president taught in our devotional last night. I'll give a summary of my favorite part:

In the pre-mortal life there was a war in heaven. We are here on earth because we FOUGHT with our whole souls to defend the plan of salvation and to defend our Savior. We put EVERYTHING into that war. Heavenly Father reserved OUR spirits for this day, to participate in the "greatest and most important work on the earth." God reserved our spirits so WE could be part the gathering of Israel. Side note, we watched President Nelson's address to the youth and if you haven't watched it, WATCH IT. President Nelson said that we need to "CHOOSE TO ENLIST IN THE BATTALION TO GATHER ISRAEL!!!" It's up to US you guys. Our president told us that we were in the MTC in heaven too, the "Mortality Training Center." I know that's true, even if we can't remember it, the lessons we learned there are PART of us. As we learn and strengthen our testimonies the feelings come back into our remembrance and confirm that they are true.

That's all for now, tomorrow I start TRC which is where people from outside the MTC (usually members) come in and we teach them. They're gonna be speaking fast spanish, not slow easy spanish like our teachers. Wish me bueno suerte por favor!!!

Love you all,

--Hermana Hansen

PICTURES: 

1. Me and my friend Jaci from BYU!!!!

2. Our (pointless) rescue mission.

3. The girls in my casa!!! I love them so much. Also I know I'm lookin rough in this picture but it is what it is. 

4. At the temple we got to go to this little bookstore and I bought all these pictures of Jesus to hang on my wall. I would 10/10 recommend doing this. So nice to wake up to this every morning!

5.  This was today (still raining). Me and my beautiful companion Hermana Iverson <3

Mexico CCM

Dear friends and family,

WOW I MADE IT TO P-DAY!!!! This week has felt like a year, but it's been like the best year of my life! 

First of all, my companion is HERMANA IVERSON!!! For those of you that don't know she's the girl that I met on instagram before I left that's also going to Omaha! We went to the temple together before we left so I had already met her, and we flew in together! SHE IS AMAZING. We literally became instant best friends. All of my weeknesses are her strengths and vise versa, we really work so well together and I thank Heavenly Father every day that she's my companion! We are some of the only companionships here that are both going to the same place in the states, most companions are going to different places!

You guys the moment I stepped onto the plane all of my fear and sadness vanished. I knew I was in the Lord's hands. I almost broke down in tears when I first put on my name tag because I was so happy to have the Lord's name over my heart. 

There are 2 elders in our district also going to Omaha, and our president said that this is the first time we have as many as 4 people in the same district going to the same place! I feel so blessed because they're all so awesome. You would be shocked at how fast at how close you can get with people in one week! There are 3 people in my district that were in my YSA ward at BYU and there are only 11 of us so that's pretty cool haha. (Challice Penny, Mckay Andrews, and I!) 

OKAY SO NOW I'M GOING TO TELL YOU WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO! 

We go class basically all day every day but it's okay because I LOVE IT! My maestros (teachers) are all so amazing. We started teaching lessons to our "investigator" on Thursday, which was like the second real day of being here. So you can imagine how terrified we were when they told us that she was a real investigator. My companion and I basically wrote word for word what to say and just prayed for the spirit to help us through it! It mas o menos, but later we found out that our "investigator" was ACTUALLY OUR NEW TEACHER. We felt so betrayed hahahaha. 

Yesterday we taught her our 5th lesson. You guys, I can't even explain the spirit we had in that lesson. We had a lot less time to prepare so we couldn't write out a script like we usually do. We walked into that lesson so nervous, but the spirit was so strong. I have NO IDEA how but I understood every single thing she said, and the words to say literally just started coming out of my mouth. Words that I didn't even realize I knew started to come out of my mouth and the spirit was so strong. The moment our lesson ended our teacher started to give us feedback and asked how we felt it went. I started bawling right then and there because I knew what I had just experienced was the gift of tongues. The gift of tongues is so real guys, you have no idea. It made me realize that I truly am an INSTRUMENT in the Lord's hands. Because I am voluntarily sacrificing my time to serve Him, he is using me to teach his people. 

D&C 90:11

"For it shall come to pass in that day, that every man shall hear the fullness of the gospel in his own tongue, and in his own language, through those who are ordained unto this power, by the administration of the Comforter, shed forth upon them for the revelation of Jesus Christ." 

THAT'S WHAT I AM DOING. I AM FULFILLING THAT PROPHECY! I am so happy and blessed that I can be part of this work. 

There is so much else I need to tell you but I don't have enough time!!! But here's one highlight: 

For exercise every day we play volleyball or tennis, and yesterday we played volleyball! It was like a super heavy ball so I was like terrified haha and everytime it came my way my first reaction was to scream and everyone made fun of me. So when we were done the Elders we were with said that we couldn't leave until I bumped the ball, and after like 10 tries I finally did! Everyone was so proud of me that all of the Hermanas came and picked me up and carried me around the court chanting "Hermana Hansen Hermana Hansen!!!" It was so funny hahaha these girls have already become my family! I love everyone here so much!!!

A few other things:

THE CCM IS BEAUTIFUL!!!! It's like this gorgeous white campus and it feels like I'm at the temple everywhere I go! Also, today I get to go to the temple and I'm so excited to go out into the city! Don't let anyone tell you the food is gross, because our mission president told us that some of the Latinos weep over the food because they feel guilty because their families are starving. That broke my heart. And I still hear people complaining about the food and it makes me so sad, it's honestly pretty good haha. 

My Spanish has improved so much, I honestly think I've learned twice as much as I did in Spanish 1 hahaha it's awesome! Also I lost the paper copy of the Book of Mormon that I've been reading since January and it has ALL OF MY NOTES and stuff in it and I am so sad about that. But everything else is amazing.

Also there are a bunch of Latinas that live in our Casa and we hangout with them all the time! Yeah there's a big language barrier but we make it work and we love them all so much hahaha we all sit together at lunch and just laugh together over our bad spanish. One of them calls me "barbie" cuz she thinks I look like a barbie hahaha it's so funny.  

SORRY THIS IS SO LONG!!!! And even after this I have so much more to say! Haha here are some pictures. 

I love you all so much, I hope you have an amazing week! 

PHOTOS: 

1 -- My travel companions! This is right after we landed in Mexico!

2 -- MY AMAZING COMPANION!!!! I LOVE HER! 

3 -- The other Elders in my district that are going to Omaha with me!

4 -- The girl in the middle is HERMANA PEREZ!!! She was my pre-MTC mentor! Also, I'm so glad I did the pre-MTC program because I am like way ahead of everyone else in my district in our memorization assignments so that's awesome. 

5 -- These are all of the girls in my district and I also share a casa with all of them! I LOVE THEM!

6 -- This is my district!

P.S. For some reason we are only allowed to take pictures on P-day so these were all taken today haha.