Ghosted

August 26, 2019

Queridos hermanos y hermanas,

Como estan!? So to explain how my week went, I did a little math. This week we were out of our area for about 2 full days with exchanges and zone conference. But with the remaining 5 days, we had 17 lessons planned. 13 of those people canceled their lessons... On Saturday alone we had 6 lessons planned and 3 of them were lined up for members to come and fellowship. But every. single. lesson. canceled. Hence my subject line... GHOSTED. Please pray for these people to open their doors to us again... they all seem so promising! Although we didn't get to teach many lessons, a lesson I learned is that sometimes life gets so busy that people put the gospel and their faith and conversion low on their priority list... I made a personal lifelong goal to never let life get in the way of my commitment to read the scriptures, pray, and go to church. The little things are the ones that count in the long run. 

A little miracle that happened this week: We started teaching a lady that a member referred to us named Hirut. She is from Ethiopia so we teach her in English (at a really basic level because she doesn't speak it that well). We told her about how Christ came to the Americas to visit his "other sheep." She asked us, "Are we Christ's sheep? How can we know that we are His sheep?" I didn't really know how to answer that, so I opened the scriptures and randomly opened it to this scripture. Mosiah 26: 21-22 "21 And he that will hear my voice shall be my sheep; and him shall ye receive into the church, and him will I also receive. 22 For behold, this is my church; whosoever is baptized shall be baptized unto repentance. And whomsoever ye receive shall believe in my name; and him will I freely forgive." IT WAS SO COOL. That proved to me that Heavenly Father and the Spirit really are the ones that run the lessons we teach... not us. I never knew where that scripture was before, and I just opened them up and there it was! It answered the question perfectly! 

To show you how the rest of our week went... the highlight of our week was that we found this huge fluffy caterpillar. We put him in a spinach container and kept him for a couple hours before we released him haha. His name was John. I'll attatch pics :) 

Hope you all have a great week! Love ya!

-Hermana Hansen 

Pics:

Some from zone conference, Hermana Iverson and I brushing our teeth with our matching South Dakota shirts, my STL and I Sister Nelson, us with our caterpillar John, and a little selfie with our favorite member Fernando - he is 12 and he is basically our little brother haha. 

La pupusería de dos gringas

August 19, 2019

Hola!!!! 

First off, THANK you to all the people who prayed for me this week. I felt your prayers honestly. The family who moved from the trailer park that we miraculously found opened the door this week! They still want to meet with us :) 

I just have 2 stories I want to tell you this week. One happy and one sad. I'll start with sad so you can have a happy ending.

Sad: So we met this guy named Roberto last week. He was out smoking in the parking lot and seemed a little rough around the edges honestly. When we went to our return appointment with him, he just opened up about the difficulties he has faced in his life. He moved here from Mexico like a year and a half ago to live with his brother, the only person he knew here. He left his wife and 9 year old daughter in Mexico and now is working as hard as he can to send money home to help them out. After work at night he watches little kid movies because it reminds him of his daughter. :( Last week his brother got pulled over for speeding and because of his illegal status he got deported. He expressed to us how hard that was for him, because his brother was literally the only one he had here. He now is completely alone here. He told us how awful his life was growing up. He was surrounded by gangs and drugs and corruption his entire life, and he had to work like all day in these fields to provide for his family basically. It was so nice to be able to testify to him that he really is not alone. Christ knows exactly how he feels. We promised him if he comes to church he will find a family. And if he reads the Book of Mormon his soul will be filled. All of those things are true and bring so much hope, but I just really couldn't help but feel so heart broken for Roberto. In his prayer he just broke down and started crying. Afterward he apologized but said he has just been having such a hard time without his brother. I have never wanted to give someone a hug more in my entire mission... But like, can't do that haha. Please pray for Roberto, he does not deserve what he's going through! Pray that he can find the joy in the gospel that he is missing in his life right now! 

Happy: So we started teaching this 17-year-old boy named Mario that has been having a super hard time adjusting to living in the U.S. He came from El Salvador and he is the only one in his immediate family that moved here, so he's living with his aunt and uncle. He misses his family so much. Guys. Just try to put yourself in these people's shoes. They are leaving their families to come to this country and when they leave, they often times won't ever see their families ever again in person in this life. IS THAT NOT HEARTBREAKING? Anyways. We were teaching him outside one day and his uncle comes out and says, "Hey it's about to rain you guys should come inside!" A few minutes after he said that, it starts STORMING outside. Like bad. Hail and thunder and lightening, like basically it would be unsafe to go outside. They started asking us all these questions like "Why can't you drink coffee" and stuff like that. I was like "Uh oh... now we are stuck here with these people who just want to make fun of us." But I was wrong! We actually had such an awesome conversation and got to answer a lot of questions and misconceptions they had. Long story short, they love us. Like a lot. Haha. They were like "We have never met someone from a christian religion who doesn't want to fight with us with the bible! You guys are amazing!" Anyway, they invited us to their 5-year-old daughter's birthday party on Sunday and demanded that we come! We were even running a little late and they texted us asking where we were. So we show up, and there were a ton of hispanic families there and they were soo excited we came!!!! They taught us how to make pupusas and we played soccer and there was a piñata and tres leches cake. All the necessities. We were literally so out of place there it was sooo funny hahaha everyone thought we were hilarious trying to make pupusas. They kept pointing at laughing "Mira!!! Las gringas!!!" Hahahaha. It was so awesome. Marlon (the uncle) said we should make a restaurant called "La pupusería de dos gringas." Such a good time. It was such a good way to help all these people see missionaries in a normal setting and know a little more about the church. Please pray for them to get baptized!!! 

Those are the highlights of the week! Love ya all!

-Hermana Hansen 

Ups and downs

Aug 12, 2019

Queridos hermanos y hermanas,

This week was full of ups and downs, it was one of the weeks where you find yourself asking "Why are we even here? What is the point of all of this?" And then a miracle happens and you think to yourself, "Oh yeah, that's why I'm here." Let me enlighten you:

The downs:

- I mentioned Herlin the past couple weeks, he is the one who our friend Javier we found was actually his cousin. Well he read like a ton in the Book of Mormon and we had some great discussions with him, we were so excited about his progress! But then we messaged him trying to confirm an appointment, and then he tells us he doesn't want to learn about the Book of Mormon because "Es que yo me enamoré de su belleza." Which means he actually just fell in love with our beauty... hahahaha noooo.... So disappointing 🤦‍♀️ So he was actually just in it for the wrong reasons. 

-This week we found out that yet another one of the progressing people we are teaching's "spouse" is not actually their spouse. That's the 3rd one so far haha. So they'll need to get married before they get baptized. Pray for wedding bells people! 

-I feel like I've just had to exercise a lot of patience with people this week... We met a lot of people that just want to Bible bash with us. Another guy we have been teaching and who even came to church two weeks ago named Elmer told us he had a vision that the catholic church was the only true church. Please pray for these people to have their hearts softened by the spirit! I just wish people would understand! Like, the gospel will bring so many  blessings!!! I really felt like Alma this week when he said: 

-"1. O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!

2. Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth." (Alma 29:1-2) 

The ups:

-This story is kind of in between up and down. But it was a crazy experience. There is a family we met a few weeks ago when they were moving into a trailer park. They moved here from Honduras a couple months ago and they have nothing. They haven't been able to find work and have been struggling with the basic necessities of life... we have been trying hard to help them. We even helped get the kids registered for school because they can't speak the language, so we called and translated for them. One day this week we went for a return appointment but they didn't answer the door. We called, and they told us they are moving to a new place and they'd send us the address later. Well a few days later they still hadn't sent us the address or answered the phone. Before we left the apartment we prayed that we'd be able to find them, and that God would put people in our path that He needed us to find. So here's the crazy part... we were at these random apartments that we randomly knocked last week. We started teaching a guy there but when we knocked, he wasn't home. We left the apartment and we were deciding which way to go around the building, we chose to go the long way because we didn't want to walk through the grass and get bug bites... (Inspiration? I think yes) We started talking to this guy in the parking lot when we see a little boy waving to us from one of the windows in the apartment building. We waved back, he looked familiar... then Hermana Iverson saw a girl walk past the window and IT WAS THE TRAILER PARK FAMILY THAT MOVED!!!! We FOUND THEM!!!! Anyways, they didn't answer the door. A little sad. God obviously put us in their path! If we hadn't knocked that apartment and been in the parking lot at that moment we would not have seen them! He needs us to find them! He answered our prayer! But it goes to show that He will give us anything we ask for in faith, but He can't take away peoples' agency... Hopefully they aren't ghosting us  Please pray for them to open the door so they can have the blessings of the gospel in their lives! 

-We are teaching this adorable Guatemalan couple named Marjory and Marvin (also not married haha) - we came for an appointment this week planning on teaching the plan of salvation, but they go "hey so we searched Joseph Smith on YouTube, and we found this video and we were wondering if you wanted to watch it with us!" (Our heart dropped a little... YouTube is a dangerous place) They pull up a video on YouTube and it was the restoration movie!!! Umm yes we'll watch it! They were so into the movie, and afterward the spirit was so strong and Marjory said, "Wow. Now I have more curiosity than ever to read the Book of Mormon and find out if it's true!!!" It was so awesome. There is nothing better than witnessing people hear about the restored gospel for the first time and feeling their excitement. The church is true people!!! 

My testimony was so strengthened on the prophet Joseph Smith this week. He may not have been perfect, but I know that he was called, even before this life, to be the prophet of the restoration. He really did see God the Father and Jesus Christ. Even after all the mobs, persecution, and attempted murders, he never denied that miraculous vision. He had a 3rd grade education and he translated the whole book of mormon in like 85 days or something!!! Like, isn't that evidence enough that the book came from God? It has been crazy to me how almost every single time we share the first vision with people during lessons, someone's phone starts ringing or the kids start screaming and going crazy, someone walks through the door, or just about any other possible distraction happens... Satan is working so hard to do anything possible to detract the spirit when we talk about Joseph Smith - because he will do anything he can to destroy the Lord's great and marvelous work! 

Love you all!!!

-Hermana Hansen

Pictures:

1. So sometimes we feel like we are in Africa. Everyone we knock into here are refugees from different places in Africa! We saw this lady walking down the street with groceries on her head and it was the coolest thing ever so we decided to try it with our Libros de Mormón haha.

2. This is an adorable daughter of a less active member's family we are working with named Rebekita.

3. You know you are a Spanish missionary when you knock on the door and they offer you food, water, and soda haha. Hispanic people are so nice!!!!! That usually doesn't happen when you knock on an English speakers door haha

4. This is called a "piña loca" and I bought it this week and ate the whole thing it was DELICIOUS. It is a bunch of fruit and cucumber inside half of a pineapple with chomoy and Chile flakes on it. Also has candy in it. Best $10 I ever spent! 

"Es como, más temprano"

August 5, 2019

Hola!!!! 

This week was the most insane week ever. WE STARTED TEACHING 11 PEOPLE. Just so you know we usually find like 2 people to teach on a good week. The Lord has seriously been preparing this area for Spanish missionaries. It has been so awesome. A lot of them have been in families which has been awesome.

The beginning of this week was a little hard not gonna lie. I was so tired. Like EXHAUSTED. I felt like a brand new missionary again. I think a new area is just a lot to take in, plus we have been knocking a lot and street contacting a ton, which has been awesome but also a lot of work! I feel a lot better now though. Wednesday was a day PACKED full of miracles. We were out knocking doors and contacting people in the middle of the day, and usually before 5:00 there aren't a ton of people that answer the door because they're at work. But for some reason, there were sooo many people at home! Listen to this story.

Background:

If you remember the story I told last week, we met these people sitting out on their steps that invited us to sit with them, and they said, "This is such a coincidence,  we were just talking about how amazing God is!" Yeah, well one of those dudes was named Herlin. It's pronounced kind of like "early" with an 'N' at the end.

(For those that speak Spanish, this is how the conversation went.

Us: Como se llama?

Herlin: Soy Herlin.

Us: Como?

Herlin: Herlin. Es como, "más temprano"

Us: OOOOHHH Early!!! hahaha)

Anyways, remember that.

Last week we met this guy named Javier, we had a great first contact with him and he was super interested!!! He was super busy so he said he couldn't promise us a return appointment, but told us to stop by whenever to see if he's home. So on Wednesday night we stopped by and we caught him right as he was walking to the park so we tagged along with him. The first thing he says is, "Hey, you met my cousin Herlin!!!" He told us that they work together and Herlin mentioned that we met with him, and Javier said "Oh I met them too!" And Herlin goes, "Oh yeah, well they gave me their number!" *whips out the passalong card we gave him* Javier whips his out too and goes "oh yeah well me too!!" They had a good laugh about it. He said that apparently we had met quite a few of his other coworkers too. It's a small world here in Sioux Falls!!! Haha apparently we've been meeting a lot of people. After teaching Javier about the Book of Mormon he goes, "Hey come back to my house, there's a couple from Honduras that are coming over right now and they need to learn about God!" So we follow him to his house and we met this adorable family and started teaching all of them right then and there on his driveway!!! They had met missionaries before in Honduras and were so prepared!!! Miracles!

Later this week we saw some construction workers working on a house. Normally we don't like bothering people while they're working but here in Sioux Falls it's a little harder to find Spanish speakers (they kind of live sporadically, they aren't all grouped together like Omaha) so we gotta take every opporitunuty we got. We went and talked with them and they were so nice! They all stopped to talk to us for a while, and their boss Raul came out and asked if we wanted to see his garden!!! So we walk behind the house and he has this huge vegetable garden! He even shared some pepino with us! He said to us "Yo soy un sembrador, pero ustedes son sembradoras de la palabra de Dios!" (I'm a planter, but you're a planter of the word of God!) He invited us over to teach his family later!

This Sunday we were sitting in our small Spanish sacrament meeting, praying for a miracle that some of the people we invited would come, when the cutest couple from Guatemala we are teaching walked in!!! They were almost an hour late but they still got to hear some testimonies and they met almost all the Spanish members!!! It was a huge miracle and they felt the spirit so strong!

Hopefully you've been able to follow this messy email, basically I am loving Sioux Falls and I love my companion! When we did Come Follow Me this week we had some thoughts about the Savior and His Atonement for us. Christ had agency. He chose to atone for us and to fulfill God's plan. Meaning, at any given moment He could have given up and decided it was too hard. As we know, He was tempted and tested by Satan. Just imagine this: Satan knew that if He could get Jesus to mess up or to sin, or to use His power in wrong ways, the Plan of Salvation would be frustrated. He knew that if he could get the Savior to mess up, he would win, and none of us would make it back to Heavenly Father again. That was what Satan wanted. Imagine how hard Satan was trying. He must have given it EVERYTHING he had to tempt the Savior. I'm sure Christ had to fight so hard to push Satan out. But He did. He pushed Satan out and He went through with God's plan, even though He knew that that would mean He would have to suffer unimaginable pain and even give up His own life. He did that because He loves us. Each one of us individually. I cannot imagine the weight on His shoulders. But He overcame it all for us, so we can go back and live with Him and Heavenly Father again. I am so thankful for my Savior. Because of Him, Satan will never win. He will never win unless we let him. So turn to Christ, and accept His invitation to follow Him, because He truly will give you peace and joy through repentance. I know that is true. I love Him so much and I love all of you!

Que tengan una muy buena semana!!

-Hermana Hansen

Apparently we took no pictures this week so here's a selfie we took with Raul in his garden!!!