Who let the dogs out?

October 14, 2019

Buenas tardes!!!! 

THIS WEEK WAS FUEGO. The first big news is I am in another TRIO!!!! Our new companion is also named Hermana Hansen. She is from Seattle, Washington and she has been out about 6 months. She's super fun and smart and great at spanish, she adds a lot to this companionship!!!! A huge perk about being in a trio is that normally we can't go inside to a single man's house unless we have another woman with us. But with 3, you can go inside ANYWHERE. We feel invincible. It's been so nice, especially with the cold weather we're getting. It snowed for 2 days straight this week! 

I'll share a few funny/epic fail experiences we had this week: 

One night we were knocking doors in this apartment complex, and this lady answers the door, swears at us and yells at us to go away, and then opens the door up as wide as she possibly can just to get a big windup to SLAM it right in our faces. It gets better though... we went to go knock the next door and the walls are thin so she could hear us knocking, so she continues to YELL at us at the top of her lungs, through her door, every swearword you could possibly imagine. "GET OUT OF THIS #@#$ APARTMENT! NO ONE #@#$$ WANTS YOUR $#$@$#!!!!" You get the picture. We ran out of the apartment laughing hysterically. It's those moments where that is the only thing you can do. Ahh... so entertaining. Gotta love being a missionary. 

On Tuesday we went to go help a member move into their new house. She asked if we could carry her clothes downstairs and put them all on the top rack of her closet. I think she had more clothes than she anticipated... The plastic support holding up the pole in the closet SNAPPED and all of the clothes fell. It was so embarrassing and we felt so bad. But yet again, we found ourselves laughing hysterically. Hahaha. All that work for nothing.

On another rainy/snow day this week we went to go visit a referral that the elders sent us. They were a Hispanic family and they couldn't communicate with them so we went and knocked their door. A teenage kid opens the door and then watches in horror as his gigantic dog escapes outside and runs out the fence that we foolishly forgot to close..."OTRA VEZ?" He says ("again?"). We felt so bad that we stupidly volunteer to run after it and bring it back. So we continue to chase this GIANT and very fast dog all throughout this giant neighborhood... We realizing that it had no collar or leash and it probably the size of one of us. So we eventually gave up, and made the walk of shame back to the house and told them we couldn't find their dog. Later that evening we saw the elders that referred them to us, and we tell them about our experience, and they say, "YOU LET THE DOG OUT TOO???" and bust up laughing. Whoops... Hopefully they let us come back to teach them. We'll close the fence next time. Hahaha. 

This week we were tracting in this trailer park and this Hispanic guy opens the door and he's literally wearing a Utah hat. Like the Utes. I was like "you've been to Utah???" And he's like "What's Utah?" And I was like "uhhh... your hat says Utah!" And he was like "Oh yeah no I just found it at the store so I bought it." Hahahah. Classic.

Okay sorry I know this email is already super long. But just 2 more cool experiences. This week one on of the freezing cold days we decided to contact some less active members that we wanted to meet. We emailed/called/texted/messaged on Facebook. It was like the most successful hour of my life! Pretty much everyone responded, many had moved, and the ones that had moved told us that they've been wanting to get back in contact with the church!! One of them literally said, "Can you help me?" Ummm YES!!! We sent missionaries to like 3 of them! It was so awesome! So much more successful than if we went out and knocked on their doors. Technology works people! It was given to us to spread the gospel! Use it! 

This week we had some awesome lessons with Roberto. We had to push back his baptismal date to November because he still has to overcome some Word of Wisdom issues. But he is sooo determined and even got a priesthood blessing when he came to church this week. It was one of the most spiritual experiences ever. After the blessing he just thanked everyone for helping him and motivating him on this journey he's on to get baptized and change his life. Later he texted us saying how happy and special that blessing made him feel. The Holy Spirit is so real and so strong!!! I love being a missionary and being able to be part of these awesome changes people are making in their lives... please keep praying for Roberto! 

Love you all!!! Thanks for all your support! <3

-Hermana Hansen 

Pictures:

Not sure what order this will send in. But: 

1. Breaking the pole in the closet...

2. Celebrating my birthday again with Sister Homer (mission birthdays are the best because you celebrate it like 5 times)

3. Me in the SNOW!!!
4-7: Us at the pumpkin patch 

2 bags of popcorn per week

October 7, 2019

Hola familia y amigos! 

Thanks for all the happy birthdays! It was a great day and there was no better way to celebrate than watching conference!! 

This week was FULL I mean FULL haha. We had Zone Conference in Omaha which occupied like a day and a half including driving and spending the night, and then 10 hours of General Conference. So basically it involved a lot of sitting and being spiritually edified. All good things! Haha. So we had a BIG change announced at Zone Conference... you know all those rumors you've heard about missionaries in the U.S. that can't eat with members anymore? Yep. The dreaded day arrived and they are implementing that rule in our mission....!!! Hahaha. But there are some exceptions. We can eat with members if they invite a non-member or less-active member, or if it is at 4:00 on Saturday or Sunday. And unless those things are the case, we eat alone at 4:00 every day. It's all with the purpose of us being out proselyting from 5:00 - 8:00 which are hours that people are normally at home! At first everyone was a little upset when our mission president announced the change. Then I felt like everyone calmed down and we actually all felt the Spirit. It was just a calm feeling, helping us realize that this will be a good thing. It will help us be more effective, and it will hopefully get the members excited to be more involved in the work, and we'll be able to find those who are prepared to receive this important message!!!! And if worst things comes to worst, they gave us all crock pots so we'll have to learn how to cook for ourselves hahaha.

We had a really spiritual lesson this week with Annette and Jose. Jose has been a member for several years but has fallen inactive, and Annette isn't a member. It's been a little hard to find our swing in teaching them because she's a native english speaker and he only speaks Spanish, so it's been very spanglish-y. We read Alma 36 with them in the Book of Mormon with them and neither of them understood a single thing. We broke it down for them in very simple terms, but they still didn't understand. Finally, in English, we asked something like, "Annette, do you know what it means when we say that Christ suffered for your sins?" "No," she said. In that moment we instantly realized that she has basically no knowledge about God or our Savior. I mean, why would she? She didn't grow up religious. We took it from square 0 and testified about Christ's mission and His Atonement. We told her that He suffered and died for her. He knows her pain and sorrows. And He is the only way we can make it back to Heavenly Father again. The spirit was so strong. I haven't had many times I've gotten to teach in English on my mission, and hearing those words in my native tongue touched my spirit and it was re-affirmed to me that those things are true. It is so special to be able to teach someone who has never heard those words before and to invite the Spirit into a person's life who hasn't been able to recognize it before. Jesus Christ knows us. He loves us. 

A few things that stuck out to me during conference were how they kept telling us to put away worldly distractions. I heard so many warnings about Satan and his tactics. I heard that we need to keep our covenants and that there is a need to access God's power more than ever before in our lives. I heard that we need to become true disciples of Jesus Christ. I heard that we need to repent and become holier. All these things led with a promise of happiness and joy... All we have to do is make the changes and we can be happy! I testify that that is true. 

This week for my birthday I got a 12 pack box of popcorn. I was so happy until I realized that... if I want to finish all this popcorn before the end of my mission... I basically need to eat 2 bags a week. It then hit me how little time I have left on my mission... It was a very bitter sweet moment. The popcorn won't be a problem though. It will probably be gone next week let's be real. 

Love you all!!! 

<3 Hermana Hansen 

Bendecido por Jesucristo

September 30, 2019

¡Saludos! 

This was an amazing week. We had a lot of success and taught un montón of lessons. On Monday night after P-day alone, from 6:00-9:00 we had 3 lessons back to back. Then again on Saturday we had 4 lessons back to back, 3 of which involved members helping us teach! None of them even fell through! Thanks for all of your prayers :) 

I feel like Heavenly Father taught me so many lessons this week. The past couple days I have been so incredibly scatterbrained. Sometimes I feel like everything I do I mess it up somehow haha. For example, almost every week I forget that we need to refill our laundry card so we have enough money on Monday to do it, because the place to refill the card on Monday opens later in the morning than we prefer to do laundry. But this week I remembered! I grabbed the card on the way out the door one day, but by the time we were going to refill the card, I looked around and couldn't find it anywhere. I LOST IT! Of course. The one time I actually remembered to refill it I lost the card haha. The very next day I was having a really rough time driving for some reason. I kept driving over curbs, at one point I got one lane too far over trying to turn left and I was on the wrong side of the street (my companion yelled at me to change lanes though don't worry), and here's the worst part... we went to go get gas, I opened the car door and a huge gust of wind pulled the door open and it hit a pole and I DENTED OUR BRAND NEW RAV4 CAR DOOR. It's just a small dent, but I felt so horrible. I promise I'm usually not that bad of a driver, I was just having a rough day I think haha. But anyway, after all these incidents I was feeling so awful inside. I tried not to show it, but I was angry and frustrated with myself for making all these silly mistakes and I just felt stupid. I even prayed and asked for forgiveness, even though I didn't sin, my scatterbrained-self just kept getting in the way of everything.  

The next morning after I dented the car, I kneeled down to pray to start my personal study. I had no idea what I was going to study so I prayed for guidance. I somehow stumbled upon an article written about the talk Joy D Jones gave during education week. She talked about a time she was heading to the temple and got pulled over for speeding. She was so frustrated with herself she turned around and started to go home, and she had this thought: "Receiving a speeding ticket had nothing to do with my worth as a daughter of God." That hit me. I felt like Heavenly Father was directly telling me that all the silly mistakes I make doesn't make me worth any less. I am His precious daughter and He loves me. I don't need to be perfect, all I can do is my best and learn to react in a positive way to the little setbacks along the path. Joy D Jones said, "As individuals make a daily effort to overcome the enticements in their life and put off the natural man, they begin to experience greater control in their life. The little things don’t bother as much because they are able to see them for what they really are—opportunities to use agency to turn to Heavenly Father and to become as He is." 

I know my Heavenly Father loves me. I know he guided me to find that article because it reminded me that every mistake we make gives us an opportunity to learn, and to choose to react in a positive way. That's what I am trying to do. 

My subject line comes from a phrase that Roberto says to us every time we ask him how he's doing. It means "Blessed by Jesus Christ." To conclude, here is a sweet message he sent us this week.

            "Muchas gracias por haberse aparecido en mi camino. Dios los bendiga y se que están para ayudar a quien realmente lo necesita y por gracia de dios yo soy uno de ellos." 

            It means: "Thank you so much for having appeared in my path. God bless you. I know you are really just here to help people that need it, and by the grace of God I'm one of them." 

I know it was no chance that we ran into Roberto. He is so prepared and excited to get baptized this month. Please pray for him to be able to stop smoking and to forgive himself for the hard things that have happened in the past. 

I love you all so much!!! Thanks for all the prayers and love. By the way I TURN 21 THIS WEEK can you believe it?

Con amor,

Hermana Hansen

Pictures: Sorry we are absolutely failing at taking pictures lately. Here's a picture of a Annette's door that we heart attacked this week, and a selfie with Roberto at church.

No time

September 23, 2019

Hola familia! 

It's gonna be a short email today because we don't have much time. This week was full of DRIVING. We had to go all the way to Omaha for trainer trainee and then we had exchanges. It is always amazing to me how God seems to consecrate our times and efforts though.

A cool story about Jose and Annette. Hermana Iverson and I had met Jose a few weeks ago but nothing really came of it. He is the less active member we ran into in the trailer park last week and he invited us in to meet his wife Annette, who isn't a member. So Annette is from Minnesota, English is her first language but she knows a little Spanish. And Jose doesn't speak a word of English so not really sure how that works. We had a lesson with them again last week. Jose really opened up to us. He told us about the day we ran into him, he was just on a ladder fixing his roof, when a thought ran through his mind of me. He thought to himself, "La hermana? That's random." 2 seconds later, he turns around and there we were. Standing right behind him saying "Hola Jose!" He told us he knew that thought was a sign from God, and that he needed to come to church again. He told us he knew that his wife needs the gospel and the Book of Mormon in her life, because she is so so sick, and she needs the gospel to give her peace and fill her soul. Annette has kidney cancer and has to go to dialysis 3 times a week, and both of them have diabetes. They came to church for the second time this week, and they both got Priesthood blessings. The spirit was soooo strong. All of this was just a reminder and testimony to me that God knows us and loves us individually. He knows His children need His gospel. When you live the gospel, you can be happy despite the trials you are facing. What a beautiful promise. 

Have a great week! Love ya!

-Hermana Hansen

Pics: Hermana Phelps and I at the falls, and us at trainer trainee with Hermana Iverson!!!

Tormentas y alarmas

September 16, 2019

Hola!!!

This week was a whirlwind, quite literally! So on Monday night the fire alarm in the building went off in the middle of the night, so we all had to evacuate. We got outside and our neighbors from the Dominican Republic were out there, and another hispanic family we didn't know lived in our building came out too!!! So we were just chillin outside our building at midnight speaking Spanish with everyone. I actually was translating for one of the hispanic guys to the fire fighters because they didn't know how to turn off the alarm and the hispanic guy did. A situation I never would have pictured myself in a year and a half ago... I love being a missionary hahaha. Anyways, we were sleep deprived the next night so we went to bed early, just to get woken up by a TORNADO!! Haha. We were so oblivious and just thought it was a crazy storm, so we pulled the covers over our head and slept through it haha. Luckily we were safe and so are all the people we know here! Just some more flooding, some smashed cars, and broken trees everywhere. 

This week we really felt lead by the hand of God. We felt like we needed to go visit a potential that lives in a small trailer park. Of COURSE I got lost and took a rather long detour trying to get there... (classic) but we made it. It was proof to me that there really is a reason for everything, because we got there in time to run into a less active member that lives next door to the potential. He hasn't been to church in a LONG time. He told us his wife was inside and invited us to meet her! She isn't a member and we were able to start teaching her!! At the end of the lesson, his son Adrian walks in, and turns out I actually had met him before when I served in Worthington, Minnesota!! He used to live there and then moved up here. Guess what? THEY ALL 3 CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY! We were shocked when we saw them walk in but it was a great surprise. Another guy we are teaching came too!! Yesterday we also taught our very first Spanish Sunday school. They've only had English Sunday school up to this point. A lot of people came and it went so well. The work is moving fast up in this tiny hispanic community in Sioux Falls, South Dakota! 

I read this quote in my studies this morning by Elder Neal A. Maxwell: "Our perfect Father does not expect us to be perfect children yet. He had only one such Child. Meanwhile, therefore, sometimes with smudges on our cheeks, dirt on our hands, and shoes untied, stammeringly but smilingly we present God with a dandelion—as if it were an orchid or a rose! If for now the dandelion is the best we have to offer, He receives it, knowing what we may later place on the altar. It is good to remember how young we are spiritually.” Neal A. Maxwell, That Ye May Believe (1992) 

I think sometimes we get frustrated with ourselves when we don't see improvement or growth as fast as we hope. But it gives me hope knowing that I don't need to be perfect, I just have to do my best, and Christ will make up for the rest. That is all we can do! And until the day that we will be completely perfected in Him, He is gonna have million of bouquets of dandelions from me at His feet. That is, until He picks me up, dusts me off, and turns my dandelions into roses. I truly am nothing without my Savior, Jesus Christ.

Love you all, hope you have a great week!

-Hermana Hansen 

Pictures:

Hermana Phelps and I

Us at a birthday party for little Rebekita 

The other day we were just sitting at a park contacting some less-active members, when these girls just came and started hanging out with us. Literally so beautiful all of them. So we took a picture :) 

I'm no longer a dope dealer, I'm a hope dealer!

September 9, 2019

Hola!

This has been like the longest week of my LIFE but it has been so good. This week Hermana Iverson and I took off to Omaha and got to go to the temple and it was so nice. I was feeling pretty uneasy about training and super stressed. But as I prayed for comfort in the temple, I felt an overwhelming feeling of peace and just felt like I was getting a huge hug. I just felt so warm and knew that everything was going to turn out fine. I love the temple. A huge tender mercy for me was that we got done with the temple early enough that my mission President said we could go visit one of my recent converts, SO WE GOT TO SEE BORIS!!!! It was the best moment ever. What a sweet reunion. He was so surprised. 

So I am now training Hermana Phelps from Cash Valley, Utah! She is the cutest little human, she is even shorter than I am surprisingly haha. Training is a little stressful sometimes because it magnifies your weaknesses and makes you realize you don't really know what you're doing haha. But it's been so amazing to be able to put my trust in the Lord and He has helped me remember everything we need to get done. And luckily Hermana Phelps has been patient with me every time I've gotten lost driving or lost the keys... hahaha. Pray for my brain please. There are so many good parts about training too though. It is so great to be able to see missionary work through a new missionary's eyes. She gets excited about every little thing and it reminds me how special being a missionary really is. She has such a desire to learn Spanish and it has been so fun to be able to teach her, she's doing awesome. 

So as you know, the past couple weeks have been a little hard. A lot of people cancelled appointments and a lot of people seemed to be turning us down. Well good news, the STORM IS OVER! The sun's finally come out. A couple tender mercies that have happened this week:

• The family we are teaching Xiomara and Marlon (the ones that taught us how to make Pupusas and cried when we shared the restoration with them) just had a baby this week!!! They called us and told us we had to go see them at the hospital so we did!!!! Even though we couldn't hold her, it was such a tender moment.
• We are still working with the family from Honduras that hasn't been able to find work and are struggling with food and money. This week we were able to serve at this HUGE food giveaway that a church puts on every week, there were over 500 people that came to get food. We met this cool lady there that told us how she used to be like a crazy drug dealer and then flipped her life around and found God, so that is where my subject line comes from haha. "I'm no longer a dope dealer, I'm a hope dealer!" Anyways they told us that all the volunteers got to go through the line and get food, so we had like 2 giant boxes full of food. We were able to bring it to the family from Honduras and they were soooo thankful it was so awesome to be able to help them.
• We taught another lesson to Roberto this week and he told us that he stayed up until 1:00AM talking to his roommate about the Book of Mormon. He also told us he spent 3 hours on the church website watching videos about Christ and that he listens to the Book of Mormon while he cooks. He kept thanking us for finding him!!! And he basically asked us if he could get baptized!!!! We set him on date for October 19th and HE CAME TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY!!!! It was the perfect end to the week. He absolutely loved it and he promised he would come next week :) 

On Sunday I was super stressed with all the things we needed to get done that day, and I knew we wouldn't have time for all of it... We needed to set goals for the week, find 2 new people to teach to meet our weekly goal, and do all of our studies. One of the ladies that gave a talk in church mentioned that as we take the sacrament it's a perfect time to ask Heavenly Father, "What lack I yet?" I decided to try it. I was afraid to ask because I was thinking, "I'm already so stressed I don't want to have another hard thing I need to work on." But I expressed my feelings to Heavenly Father and the first thought that came into my mind was, "You don't have to be stressed. Let go of your anxiety and everything will work out." Isn't that the best answer ever? I don't need to be worried. That was what Heavenly Father told me I was lacking and I didn't realize the answer would be so simple. I followed the council and decided to just relax a little bit and put everything in God's hands. We were able to complete EVERYTHING we needed to on Sunday and even found 2 new people to teach and met our goal. Heavenly Father is so good. He loves us and cares about even the small things that are on our plate. When we choose to put it all in His hands, He takes care of everything. 

Que tengan una buena semana :)

-Hermana Hansen 

Pictures: (I'm not sure what order these will be in)

-Played soccer with the cutest family last P-day

-Going through the temple with Hermana Iverson and the other sisters that are training

-Getting to see BORIS!

-Transfer point meeting Hermana Phelps, Hermana Jorgensen, and Johnson<3

-Visiting Xiomara and Marlon and the baby

-A selfie with our mission leader (who just barely got off his mission haha) and James, the one we took on a teamup with Roberto and bore his testimony in Spanish

I'm training... otra vez!

September 2, 2019

Hola!

So this week has been a whirlwind haha. I found out I'm TRAINING AGAIN for my last 2 transfers. Hermana Iverson will be too and she will open a new area in Omaha! So this will be the 3rd time I've trained (well 2.5th time because one was just for 1 transfer instead of 2). It came as a huge surprise and I was quite stressed and sad and cried a lot for a minute there... mostly because I don't want Hermana Iverson to leave me... but it will be okay!!!! I'm excited to meet her and I know God has a plan. Our plan is like almost never His plan! And great things will come out of it. 

I have some cool miracles to share with you this week. So as you know, last week was kind of rough. All of our strong progressing people have kind of been avoiding us and stopped answering the door and our calls... It's been a little saddening. We have been praying so much and working so hard and we love these people!!! Miracles:

Roberto:

We brought our friend James with us to an appointment with Roberto this week. James is 21 and he is about to leave on his mission to Ecuador next week! Roberto is the one whose brother just got deported and he is all alone... We knocked on Roberto's door like 4 times and no answer... So we left a little sad because we've unsuccessfully tried to bring James to a lesson at least 5 times now and everyone cancelled. But then Roberto walked outside! He was just on the phone so he didn't answer!!! We had an AWESOME lesson with him. Found out he has read a ton in the Book of Mormon. One hour every single night to be exact. The best part of the lesson was that James had been practicing bearing his testimony simply in Spanish. He just said "Yo sé que el Libro de Mormón es verdadero. Yo sé que Jesucristo es mi Salvador. Yo sé que la iglesia es verdadera." (I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know Jesus Christ is my Savior. I know the church is true). That is all James could say in Spanish... but it was the most powerful thing ever. The spirit was like exploding in the air. Simple testimony is so powerful. Roberto prayed in the lesson and said that he believes the Book of Mormon is true in his prayer! It was so awesome. Later that week Roberto messaged us on Facebook and asked if he could call us and read the book of mormon with us. Ummm yes!!!! No one does that! We were able to read a chapter with him. Roberto is so prepared!!!

Marlon:

Remember the awesome family that invited us to their daughter's birthday party? Well they cancelled their last appointment with us and we hadn't seen them in a while. We felt like we should just stop by and see them one night. We showed up and they were sitting on their porch, talking about how awful their day had been... they were surprised to see us! We were able to cheer them up a little bit and they invited us inside. We taught them the restoration and something incredible happened. I shared the 1st vision of Joseph Smith and bore testimony that I know Joseph truly saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. And they told him that none of the churches were complete on the earth anymore, so it needed to be restored. When I said those words, Marlon started to cry. Like head in his hands weeping. The spirit was so strong I felt like the house was going to start floating. When Marlon finally gathered himself he told us that he used to be a missionary like us, he would preach the word of God in the street and on buses. But he said it always felt like something was missing. He never felt like it was complete. And he said he understood completely how Joseph felt, and the words of his vision touched him so powerfully. We testified to him, that that feeling was the Holy Ghost telling him that these things were true. And that the church has been restored on the earth again today. That might have been the most powerful lessons I have ever had on my mission. It was exactly what we needed this week too. His wife told us she knew God sent us to their house that night... to cheer them up from having a bad day and to share the story of Joseph Smith. His wife is having a baby this week! Pray for her too! 

I just want to bear my testimony and witness that God loves us so much, He hears our cries and our prayers... He knows when we are struggling and when we need Him most. There are times I've questioned that. Just yesterday we were having such a hard day (fasting might have added to the difficulty haha). We had back to back appointments all day, and yet again every single one of them cancelled, one by one. We were feeling discouraged and sad. We had only found 1 new person to teach that week and to meet mission standards we had to find at least one more. But no one seemed to have time or care to listen to us... then we got the call from president finding out we were getting transferred... It was rough. I momentarily thought "Why would God do this to us?" We pulled ourselves together and went to go knock some more doors, doing anything to find one more person to teach. There was a locked apartment we'd seen some Hispanic people walk in and out of at one point, so we went to go see if we could get in somehow. As we got closer we saw there was a tiny rock in the door holding it open!!!! Tender mercy. The first door we knocked was a guy from Guatemala that we ended up teaching. :) I looked back at the day and thought... wow. The Lord did not forget about us. He knows how hard we've been trying and how hard this day was. He put that rock in the door for us. He does love us. It made me think of Ether 12:18 "And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith." 

I also know Christ loves us so much. Sometimes as a missionary you think "Why am I here? What is the point?" Don't you think Christ ever got home from a long day of people rejecting him and spitting on him ever thought to himself "Am I really the Son of God? No one gets it. What is the point?" Maybe He did. But He went on with His purpose and suffered for each one of us, because He love us. That is the point of all of this. To share the message of hope Christ's infinite Atonement offers. 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Hansen

The only picture this week: our district