MAMA LUPE!

April 15, 2019

Queridos amigos y familia, 

This was an insane week!!! I wanted to start with 2 very opposing text messages that we got this week. 

Borys: (The most progressing person we are teaching. He sent this to us after he read all of Joseph Smith History on his own - not being asked. BTW I'm translating this from Spanish so it might not be exact.)

"When I read these scriptures something grand happens inside of me. Because of this, I feel so grateful to have met missionaries in my country and now to have met you guys here. You are people that one can truly feel the word of eternal life with. I read all of the testimony of Joseph Smith and I felt the spirit. I know that God loves me and sent me missionaries to learn from the disciples of Christ." 

The words flowed better in Spanish but isn't that amazing? The spirit truly has testified to him that this church is TRUE. He is a 22 year old boy that spends all of his time working and reading the scriptures. We should all be a little more like Borys!

Abraham: (This was a crazy experience. Earlier this week we had to leave our apartment at around 7:30AM - much earlier than usual - to help translate for a Spanish speaker that was getting interviewed for baptism. It was a little ways away, but it was closed to the computer lab, so on the way home we decided to stop at the computer lab because we needed to print out some bus routes. Right when we were about to leave, this guy comes up to us and asks if we had a minute to talk. Of course we do! He asked us some questions about our beliefs. This ended up being almost a 2 HOUR CONVERSATION. It wasn't a bible bash but like kind of. All we did was testify of the restoration, that Joseph Smith was a prophet and translated the Book of Mormon, and a little bit about the Plan of Salvation and that we go to the spirit world after we die. Let's just say he didn't believe it. Which is okay! We told him our purpose was only to invite, and that the only person that could witness to him that what we said was true was God, through the Holy Ghost. Anyways, he said he wanted to go to church to see what it was like, so we sent him the address. This is what he said in response.) 

"Thank you for reaching out to me. I will not go to the meeting today. To believe that the book of Mormon was given by the inspiration of God as the Bible, and that there is hope for Salvation for sinner after death are beliefs that are diametrically opposed to what the Bible says and to what I believe as a Christian. Infact, after our discussion, I felt very concerned about your Salvation. Just assume maybe Joseph Smith was wrong or deceived by the devil, which is a possibility. The devil is very crafty. I encourage you to read more of the Bible and less of the book of Mormon. J. Smith also read and believe the bible. Currently I am not a member of any Church so l am not asking you to leave your Church rather to encourage you to objective and ask the Lord God Almighty to reveal the truth to you. As for me, if an angel came from Heaven to tell me that the book of Mormon is an Inspired book and that there is hope for sinners after death I will not believe. I'm very willing and happy to discuss the Bible with you or anyone at anytime. Thanks and God bless you. Extend my greetings to your friend."

So... that's that! Haha. Just wanted to share a little bit of the opposition that we see as missionaries. I just feel bad for these people, because they have no idea how much greatness they are missing. What he doesn't know is that we have put in the spiritual work to know that the Book of Mormon is true. It is the word of God. Jospeh Smith was a prophet. And that this is the only church on earth that has saving ordinances that connects us directly with Heaven. Please pray for Abraham! 

My dad met Borys and Guadalupe! 

Besides that, so much other amazing stuff happened this week! Our mission president is trying out this new thing where we can video chat our parents into lessons if they have an experience that would benefit those we are teaching!!! We tried that this week. My dad videoed-in to a lesson we had with Borys and Guadalupe. It was such a cool experience!!! It shows that there is a divine reason that God sends us on missions. My dad was able to both use his Spanish, and share stories from his mission in Peru in the video call. What he learned on his mission is still blessing lives years later! 

Trainer Trainee and MAMA LUPE! 

This week we also had Trainer Trainee, a meeting with all the trainers and trainees. It was cool to be on the opposite side of it this time. It made me realize how much my mission has shaped me and changed me!! We also had the opportunity to help serve with all of the flooding again. I'll attach some pictures. I never knew destroying drywall was so satisfying. The best part though, was seeing 66-year-old Guadalupe taking charge. She was yellin at everyone giving them instructions (in Spanish mind-you), and shredding up the place with her shovel. That is a power woman! She probably got more done in that house than the rest of us combined. Everyone started calling her "Mama Lupe!" and cheering for her while she worked. It was so funny. I wish you could have seen it.

That's about it for the week. I love being a missionary. I used to not understand when missionaries used to say "I never want to go home." I was like what are you talking about? This is so hard. But I understand now. You see miracles on your mission. My mission has completely changed me for the rest of my life. I have a personal relationship with my Savior. I know the Church is true. I still don't know if I can say "I never want to go home," but I can say, "I want to be a missionary forever." And that is something that I can do :)

Los amo,

Pictures:
1-2: Some more pan that Borys brought us from his panaderia! 

3: Nebraska sunsets <3

4. Trainer trainee!

5-8: Pictures from the flood clean-up and mama Lupe!

9: A screenshot from the lesson we had with my dad, Borys, Guadalupe, and us!  

Time is Running Out

April 8, 2019

Hola!!

This week was kind of a blur, I feel like Monday was yesterday. A lot of people cancelled on us, but something that I realized is that often times when someone cancels an appointment, it's because God needs us to be doing something else. He has a divine plan and purpose His hand literally guides us everywhere. 

Mormon.org

This week we got an assignment to go try and find a lady on our branch roster that no one had ever heard of. We knocked her door, and an old man named Michael answered that was clearly not interested, but we gave him a card and told him to call us if he ever wanted to learn more about the Church! The next day, we got a call from a random number and it was Michael!!! He saw "mormon.org" on our card and said "He didn't realize we were Mormons" and realized that he actually had a lot of questions about our religion. His internet doesn't work (that or he doesn't know how to use it) so he asked if we could bring him some literature so he could learn more about it. Wow!!! So I guess there are still good things about having an outdated mormon.org pass-a-long card. He wouldn't have known who we are if we didn't have that link on there!

Shawn.

In the same outing that we found Michael, we were heading back to our car when we saw a dude with a cowboy hat reading the paper on his front porch. I didn't particularly want to talk to him and we were already running late to dinner, but the Spirit wouldn't stop telling me that we needed to. So right before I unlocked the car door, I was like "Come on. Let's go talk to this guy." His name was Shawn. Turns out Shawn is a MEMBER. He hasn't been to church since he was young and we don't even have him on our branch records. He was very friendly! Although he isn't ready to start coming back to church, Heavenly Father lead us right into the path of one of His lost sheep. When I heard in conference that Heavenly Father is aware of all of His children and knows where every single one of them are, I thought of Shawn. I'm so thankful I listened to that prompting from the Spirit! 

Omaha Ice Cream

Another cool thing that happened this week was that we got a referral from a lady named Paula in Utah. Her phone broke, so she called a phone repairman and he happened to live in Omaha. She told us that they had a good conversation about how good the Ice Cream is in Omaha, "and obviously that lead to me telling him that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." (Word for word what she said). They talked about the trail center, and apparently he had been there before for the Gingerbread festival they have in December there. He said he had noticed how kind everyone was there, and he wants to learn more about the church!!! Wow. This reminded me of Elder Ucthdorf's talk this weekend - reminding us how important it is to bring the gospel into our everyday conversations, in normal and natural ways! Anything and everything can lead to a conversation about the restored gospel. Even Omaha Ice cream! 

Unfortunately every person I've talked about in this email so far we had to refer to the elders because they are all English speaking. But it was still so cool to see God's hand everywhere throughout our week:) 

Time is Running Out

Did it hit you guys as hard as it hit me when President Nelson said this??? The second coming is around the corner! Last night after conference we went and did some finding. There was a huge Hispanic family sitting out on their porch last night so we went and talked to them. The dad's name was Alex. We had the deepest conversation with him about Jesus Christ and His Atonement for us. I felt the Spirit as Alex bore his testimony to us that only through Christ can we be saved. He talked about how vital repentance is and that we have to allow His Atonement to cleanse us within. He even talked about how there are so many churches on earth that have different beliefs, but there is only one God. That lead to a perfect conversation about Joseph Smith and we shared truths of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon with him. After all of this, he could not accept that we read any other book than the bible. We left the conversation feeling so heart broken. He is so close. He knows he has a Savior that loves him and his core beliefs match up almost perfectly with ours. But he does not know that he is missing out on saving ordinances from the restored Priesthood authority that we have. I feel like I finally understand the sons of Mosiah when they say: 

"Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble." (Mosiah 28:3)

It makes sense to me now. TIME IS RUNNING OUT people. I wanted to just grab Alex by the shoulders and shout that at him. But unfortunately we shouldn't do stuff like that haha. 

Apparently we took 0 pictures this week so sorry about that. Love you all. Thanks for the support and prayers!

-Hermana Hansen 

If I ate street tacos every day for the rest of my life I'd be content

April 1, 2019

Hola!!

This week we had the chance to help serve people near the river that were affected by the flooding that's been happening all over Nebraska. It was such a crazy experience! Homes were literally destroyed. There were trailers, shacks, and garages that were completely submerged in the water. We helped gut one of the houses by ripping up the drywall and taking everything out to the dumpster. It was heart breaking to see people throwing away belongings that were once precious to them. Overnight people's homes were destroyed and everything they own is gone. Many are living in hotels. It's tragic. We were thankful that we were able to help! These people got teary-eyed seeing that we were willing to serve them.

We had Stake Conference this weekend and we had both Elder Brain K Taylor and Elder Scott from the 70 join us, because we are getting a new stake in Omaha! Our branch just got put into the new "Omaha Millard Stake" and we are excited. I translated during the adult session with headsets and we got to sit on the stand behind the general authorities and our mission president. It was a really cool experience that I (and a few other members) got to translate for a member of the 70. The gift of tongues was SO REAL and it was cool that translating is so much easier for me now than it was 5 or 6 months ago. 

Stake Conference was amazing. My favorite parts were when Elder Taylor and Scott told stories about President Nelson. Elder Scott told a story about when he was in a meeting with President Nelson in Wisconsin. Elder Scott said something like, "The people in Wisconsin are so nice. How are we going to help them get the missionary work moving faster?" President Nelson said back, "I don't think Heavenly Father is worried about that. I think Heavenly Father just wants his children to come back home." Wow. Heavenly Father doesn't care about numbers or baptismal statistics, he cares about each of His children individually, and He just wants them to come home. President Nelson is man that truly knows the nature of God. Elder Scott wept as he talked about hearing the prophet and apostles bear witness of the Savior. He just kept saying, "They know Him." How amazing is it that we have a prophet and apostles that KNOW Jesus Christ personally. We get to hear them next week. I'm so excited. It was special to be a witness of a new Stake Presidency being called. They were very emotional and I felt the Spirit tell me that God himself chose them to guide the people here. I don't even know them and the Spirit witnessed that to me. Remember that in your callings. God chose you.

This week I felt prompted that I needed to strengthen my personal relationship with my Savior. During personal study I started looking up one reference to Jesus Christ every day in the Topical Guide. Wow. I highly recommend it. So far I have only been re-reading the story of his birth. But I have felt the Spirit so strong every time I read about Him. I already feel like I know Him better and the reality of His life on earth has already influenced the way I've been thinking and acting this week. I know our Savior lived and died for us. He loves us. He knows us individually. He can lift us out of any rut we find ourselves in. I have seen it in others and I have seen it in myself. 

Love you all, thank you for the support and prayers!
-Hermana Hansen 

 Pictures:

1. We got these bad boys on our car fast day. Lagrimas. They were so good. 

2. Some members we went out with  to find less active members in the area!

3-5. Flood cleanup!!! 

6. Service at the food pantry with Sister Thomas our mission nurse/service coordinator.

7. Borys brought us some pan that he made from his Panaderia!!! El cielo en mi boca.

Estoy perdida por las palabras

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.