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Mar 25, 2019

Buenos dias a todos! 

This email might be long. But please read it (you can skip to the part about the miracles if you want). So many miracles happened that I can't even begin to explain. But I will try to put them into words. Buckle up!!!!

"Helaman 3:25 And so great was the prosperity of the church, and so many the blessings which were poured out upon the people, that even the high priests and the teachers were themselves astonished beyond measure."

That scripture basically sums it up. First of all I got to go to the temple and do an endowment session for the first time since last June. The adjustments were AMAZING! If you haven't gone to see them, GO! Wow. I was just blown away. The reason I got to go was because I am training a new missionary! So before someone trains, they get to go to the temple.

My new companion's name is Hermana Jorgensen. She is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Whenever she tells people that, their eyes pop. Like "she's not from Utah???" haha. She went to BYU for 3 semesters before she came out and took french for 6 years! I think it really helped her Spanish because she can speak and understand really well. Definitely better than I was when I first got out! She is AMAZING and we clicked like right off the bat. She is just so happy and easy going. I thought I was going to die my first week in the field but she is adjusting really well and had such a strong desire to be obedient, but also have fun. Perfect balance. This is going to be a great few transfers. :) 

MIRACLES:

ASL. First of all. I GOT TO USE SIGN LANGUAGE FINALLY. We got a referral a few weeks ago from some elders that know I know ASL. They weren't in our area so we finally got to go this week. I knocked on their door, and a hispanic lady answered. The kids told us she is deaf so I started signing to her. Get this. SHE IS FROM MEXICO. She reads and writes in Spanish, and she knows ASL!!!! She knows Spanish Sign Language better but knew a little ASL, so we could communicate. I was signing to her and tears were just running down my face because I was like blown away that I could still remember it and I could communicate with her. Her name is Sandra and she wants to learn more about Christ. We got a return appointment because she was busy, but we gave her a Book of Mormon in Spanish. Can you believe I get to use SPANISH AND ASL AT THE SAME TIME. I have been praying to find a deaf person my whole mission! 

BORYS. I could say a lot about Borys. But for the sake of time and your attention span, I'll just say this. He is on date for baptism for April 20th! Pray for him please!

GUADALUPE. Got baptized last Saturday, got her temple recommend on Sunday, and did baptisms for the dead in the temple for the first time on Thursday. She walked out of the dressing room after she did baptisms and goes, "Thank you Jesus Christ" in English. Literal cutest human in the world haha. It's so funny when she speaks English. 

JUSTINA. Guadalupe gave us a referral! Her friend is trying to find which church is true and Guadalupe told her all about her baptism and how her life is changed. She came with us to the appointment we had on Saturday. First of all her kids are literally insane. They speak English and Justina speaks Spanish. I don't think she knows how many swear words they say. They were fighting the whole time and just beating each other up. Needless to say the Spirit was not there. Anyways, THEY CAME TO CHURCH. It was an insane experience. I translated in sacrament meeting so I was already nervous about that. Then, after Sacrament meeting we took her 5 kids and got them all settled down in the primary room downstairs. When we came back upstairs to join Relief Society, Justina was in the back of the room about ready to storm out of the building. We asked her what was wrong, and she told us her phone was dying and she was worried her husband would try to call her to know when to pick her up, so she asked a member where there was an outlet to plug it in. But then apparently the member she asked kinda yelled at her and said we can't use our phones at church...?? Justina was very offended and told us she was leaving. I was lost for words. But a miracle happened and another member came up to her and convinced her to stay. She ended up cooling down and loving relief society and even participated throughout the whole lesson. WOW. Lessons to be learned: Never yell at someone who is coming to church for the first time. Actually, never yell at anyone at church ever. Also, if someone is offended, be the person to convince them to stay. 

MYSTERY GUY. On Saturday night we got a random phone call and this guy asked us what time our church started and asked for the address. We asked who it was, and he told us that he had a lot of questions about faith and had been drawn to our church. LIKE WHAT? Hermana Jorgensen literally fell off the couch while he was talking because she couldn't believe it. Anyways, he came to church!!! To repeat myself from last week. People are flocking to the church!!!!! 

MARIA. There are some Spanish elders that used to serve in our area and got pulled out a few months ago. One of the people they used to teach reached out to them and she said she had been thinking about them and said she is ready to accept the gospel. She said she had been feeling like it was "now or never." Well they referred her to us because she is in our area!!! We met her and she is SO. PREPARED. She told us she wants to be baptized. It made so much sense to her that the gospel of Jesus Christ was lost for a time and it got restored. Wow. Will wonders never cease???

Sorry this email was so long. You guys, the second coming is right around the corner. I have never seen so many people literally begging for the gospel in their lives. People are recognizing that there is something missing in their lives. Something stuck out to me that Borys said this week. He said something like this: "When Hermana Gubler asked me to be baptized, I was hesitant. But I went home and sat in a quiet room. I felt empty. I just started to read the Book of Mormon and pondered. I realized that this gospel is what fills me." Wow. The Spirit is guiding so many people to Christ's church. This is what they are looking for. I am so blessed to be part of this work in such a critical time. And all of you are too!!! PRAY FOR MISSIONARY OPPORTUNITIES. I promise Heavenly Father will make you and instrument in His hands if you are willing.

Thank you for taking the time to read this novel. I love you all!!!

-Hermana Hansen 

Pictures: 

The temple with the trainers, and transfer point with Hermana Jorgensen! 

People are flocking to the church!

March 18, 2019

Hola familia y amigos!!!!

First big news: I found out last night that I am going to train a new Hermana this transfer!!! Transfers are on Wednesday. I am nervous and excited!!! I will miss Hermana Gubler. She has taught me soooo much. Pray for her safe travels home! 

I know I have said this like 100 times before. But I think this was the best week of my mission. Hahaha. I'll just highlight a few of the biggest miracles.

Borys:

On Monday night we had a lesson with Borys and the first thing he said was "I made a big life change this week." And he went on to tell us that HE GOT A NEW JOB. So he will be able to come to church!!!! Which means he will be able to get baptized!!!! We were like bouncing up and down how excited we were. Miracles are just happening right before our eyes. Faith can move mountains people!!! 

Guadalupe:

SHE GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! You guys. This was the most amazing day of my life. Everything worked out perfectly. She was SO EXCITED and it made us so happy. Everything was in Spanish but the talks were translated in English too. She was so cute. She sat in the front row, and everytime she liked something they said in the talks, she would say "AMEN" hahaha. While she was changing after her baptism, Hermana Gubler and I shared The Living Christ with the congregation in Spanish by MEMORY. We have worked on it almost every day this transfer. It was a great experience to be able to share it, and I felt the Spirit so strong testifying of our Savior. It was even better hearing the "Amens" from Guadalupe when she got back from changing. The best part of the baptism was hearing Guadalupe share her testimony at the end. She shared how her life has completely turned around since she met the missionaries. She talked about how Hermana Gubler and her last companion found her 3 days after her mom passed away and how she was so sad, but now she has an eternal perspective and has never been happier. She said she had been praying and praying and praying to be able to find a church, and the missionaries found her and she knows God hears her. The best part is when she said "Me amo mi Jesus Christ." She loves saying Jesus Christ in English because it's one of the only words she knows and she thinks is so beautiful. "En el nombre de Jesus Christ, amen" she says haha. We are teaching a whole family from El Salvador that is in another area right now because they don't speak English. Hermana Gubler and I invited them to come the the baptism but they said they probably can't because they are bad at directions. Hermana Gubler wanted to set it up so someone could stop by their house and they could follow them to the baptism, but I didn't want to because we had a lot of other stuff to do and it would take too much work/time to set it up. But she was persistent and we were able to find someone to guide them to the church and THE WHOLE FAMILY CAME. I was literally shocked. I learned a humbling lesson that it is always worth the trouble to get people places where they can feel the spirit. The mother in that family was crying while Guadalupe bore her testimony. It was so spiritual and I'm thankful for Hermana Gubler's  diligence to get them there! Borys came too! It was a great turnout and the Spirit was so present.

Church miracle:

Guadalupe got confirmed on Sunday, and afterward we had a "linger-longer" activity. Basically a potluck haha. We didn't even know Guadalupe knew about the activity but she stayed up until 1:00AM making pazole (It's yummy Mexican soup stuff). She was running around helping all of the other Hispanic members prepare their food and it was the cutest thing ever. She is doing so well! She also had her temple recomend interview and she is going to go with the branch to do baptisms on Thursday!!! 

Crazy thing that happened. A random guy walked into church yesterday and we saw him sit down and start eating at the activity. We went and talked to him and this is his story in bullet points. 

-He came to Omaha on a whim with his friend to find a new construction job. 

-His friend ditched him here, he had no job and no place to stay.

-Within a few days he found a job selling furniture and another one flipping houses (buying run-down ones and making them nice again to sell). He was able to live in the house that he's currently working on. 

-He found out that the house he's working on has to do with something about the Mormon pioneers? Like they settled the property or something. I was a little confused. 

-It made him think. Huh. "I've never gone to one of them Mormon churches before. Maybe I should go sometime." (He doesn't know about the name correction Haha.) 

-He recognized that Heavenly Father had been blessing him with being able to find a job and a house so fast and realized he needed to go to church. He said he would go to the first church he drove past. IT WAS OUR CHURCH!!!!! Coincidence?? I think NOT!

As we were talking to him we mentioned that our purpose as missionaries is to help people have faith, repent, and be baptized. He goes, "Oh yeah! I was thinking about baptism lately and how it says in the bible that we need to be baptized. So I want to be baptized." Our jaws literally dropped. This doesn't happen on a regular basis Haha. We found out he isn't in our area so we don't get to teach him, but SO COOL HUH? He told us he recognized that the Spirit has just been guiding him around and that's how he made it to our church. He was pretty stoked that he came the day we had food too haha.

Basically my testimony has grown so much this week. People are literally flocking to the Church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is true. I'm so glad that I am in the midst of the Lord hastening His work. What an amazing blessing to be a missionary in the last days. :)

Love you all, have an amazing week!!!!

-Hermana Hansen

Pictures:

1. Doing service with Hermana Tere cleaning her house! Cutest member ever. She has cancer but just finished her treatments and as of now she is cancer free!!!

2. Our district!

3-5: Guadalupe's baptism!!!!

Fe para mover montañas

March 11, 2019

Hola Familia y Amigos! 

W.O.W. This week was so amazing! Heavenly Father has been blessing us so much lately! So last week we set Guadalupe for baptism for the 16th of March. We did the math, and realized we would have to teach her every single night until her baptism if she were to make it to her date. 99% of the human population would not be able to make that work with their schedule/have the desire for us to come that often... Not Guadalupe!!! Learning about the gospel is her favorite part of the day. And teaching her is our favorite part of the day! We have been able to have a different member that speaks Spanish come to every single one of her lessons except one, which is huge. She already knows almost every single person that speaks Spanish in our branch! While working with Guadalupe, she has taught me far more than we have taught her. Her faith is stronger than anyone I have ever met. The second the Spirit told her that the church was true, she was 100% committed. She told her boss that she is never going to work on Sundays again. 2 weeks ago we thought it would be impossible for her to go. But through much prayer, her boss's heart was softened, and now she can go. When we taught her about tithing, before we even taught the blessings of tithing, she said she would be willing to pay it "con gusto!" She said she would do anything to be able to repay God for all the blessings she's already received from the gospel. When we taught her about the Word of Wisdom, she told us that coffee isn't even desirable to her anymore and she will never even think about drinking another cup ever again. We went over the baptismal interview questions with her and she answered all of them with like the firmest testimony I've ever heard. This woman has so much faith that she comes to a church that is entirely in English and she can't even speak a word of it. They have Spanish translation through headphones and someone whispers in her ear during the second hour so she knows what is going on. Putting myself in her shoes, I feel like it would be hard to have the faith to go to a church that isn't in my language. But Guadalupe knows it's true. And she has a smile on her face the entire time. And even says hello to the English members! My faith has soared this week. I know that when we have faith in Jesus Christ, literally ANYTHING is possible. I've believed that my whole life, but it wasn't until this week that I really understood it. Faith can move mountains. Whatever you are facing in life, whatever trial or trouble, trust in Christ. He will take your roadblocks and remove them. Or He will make you strong enough to overcome them. I promise you! I've seen it. 

Please pray for Guadalupe this week! I love you all!

-Hermana Hansen 

Pictures:

1-2: Selfies we took at Zone Conference! 

3-4: Pictures from a dinner we had with the Elders and the Ramirez Family!

5: Us with Guadalupe!

6: These are a bunch of little cards we made about President Nelson to help us teach Guadalupe how to follow the prophet! She loved it! And I know that He is a Prophet of God!!! I love that guy!

You can rest when you die

Mar 4, 2019

Hola Familia y Amigos!!!

I HIT 9 MONTHS THIS WEEK! So crazy how time flies. I put that as my subject line because that phrase kept going through my head this week haha. We had so much going on, but Heavenly Father truly was with us helping us and guiding us! I really hold on to this quote when times are stressful on the mission: "I you feel a little overwhelmed, take that as a good sign. It indicates that you can sense the magnitude of the trust God has placed in you." (Henry B. Eyring - "Walk With Me" April 2017).   

Service:

This week we went on exchanges and we saw a really cool miracle! There was this elderly lady named Margaret shoveling her car out of the snow so she could go to the library. We offered to help but she said she was almost done, and she wasn't interested in our message so we left. We knocked a few doors, and about 15 minutes later we were walking back in that direction and saw the same lady trying to drive away, but her car was stuck. We ran up to go help her and even recruited another random guy to come help us. We were all pushing her car for like 10 minutes and it wouldn't budge, so he gave up and left. We asked Margaret if we could pray with her, and the second we said amen, a skater-looking-dude walked past and I called out to him to help us! He couldn't get her out either, so he called his roommate and he came out and we all worked together and finally pushed her out! Afterward Margaret came out of her car and gave us all hugs and was so thankful she almost started crying. She told us she wanted to buy us all a cup of coffee hahaha (we politely declined). I was just looking at all 5 of us standing there. An older lady, a skater dude, and a shaggy haired college student, and 2 missionaries. We were all just chatting and everyone was so happy we were able to get her out. All of us come from such different walks of life, but we were able to come together to serve.

We were also able to serve in a food bank this week with Sister Thomas (the mission nurse/service coordinator)! There were some other young girls about our same age volunteering. We overheard one of them saying she wants to join a new church. You best believe we went over to talk to her! We were able to connect about college and just get to know her, and we ended up inviting her to check out the Singles Ward here! My testimony of service really grew this week, when people come together to serve each other, there are so many opportunities that come up to share the gospel. 

Guadalupe: 

We saw so many miracles with a sweet older lady we are teaching with Guadalupe this week. She keeps every commitment we give her and wants so badly to be baptized, but she works on Sunday so could never go to church. Her mom recently passed away. This week we felt strongly prompted that we should teach her about Temples and Baptisms for the dead, so we did. When she heard that she could be baptized for her mom, she was so touched. The spirit was so strong, and I think her angel mother was there with us that night. I think that her angel mother lead the missionaries to find Guadalupe. The feeling in that room that night was indescribable! That night Guadalupe told us she was going to come to church. She had talked to her boss and said she isn't going to work on Sundays nada mas! Guess who came to church on Sunday and even bore her testimony in Sacrament meeting?? GUADALUPE! And guess who agreed to be baptized a week from Saturday? GUADALUPE! In her testimony she said something like "You have no idea how much my life has changed since the hermanitas came." She asked for all the members to pray for her to keep progressing in the gospel. 

There is so much more that happened this week but these were the highlights! I know that Jesus Christ truly is at the head of all of this work. Every night I look back on the day and just recognize that none of these miracles would be possible without His help! My invitation to you all this week is to find someone to serve!!!! It will make you so happy! 

Con amor,

Hermana Hansen 

Pictures (they might not send in order):

1-4: Exchanges! Sister Spencer and I with Margaret after we pushed her car out haha. Also the tire tracks of her car. She pushed the gas so hard she made a hole with her tire hahaha. 

5: This is Borys (person we are teaching) and a member named Tere after the Family Home Evening activity at the church!

6: Us with the cutest little girl in our branch named Lucy.

7. Hermana Gubler and I eating at a member's house.

8. Serving at the food bank with Sister Thomas

9. Guadalupe!!! She is in the middle and her fellowshipper Hermana Ochoa is on the right.