July 30, 2018

Hola familia y amigos!!!!

This week has been the best week yet! I'll talk about the best part first. WE HAD FOUR BAPTISMS ON SATURDAY!!!! Moumouni, Peda, Cheick, and Roy were all baptized and confirmed this weekend. It was honestly the most amazing service. Each of them were grinning ear to ear afterward and the spirit was so strong. On Sunday each of them got confirmed. They asked Moumouni (the dad) to bare his testimony and it was the most adorable thing. His first language is french because he's from Africa and his accent is pretty strong. He basically said that his life was completely changed, and even after he went home after the baptism he felt like something was different. He said he feels complete, and he just kept saying thank you over and over. It was SO amazing. I've never seen anyone more joyful in my life. He wasn't sure how to close his testimony so he closed with a prayer, it was so tender. MY HEART IS SO FULL! 

I'll give you a brief rundown on Moumouni's family. They are from Burkina Faso and he basically applied to come to America 10 years ago in this lottery thing. Tons of people apply and they only pick like 10 people, and he got picked! He had a wife and 2 kids that he had to leave when he came to America. 2 years ago he was finally able to get his kids to come join him in America! Peda is 13 and Chick is 11. They are in the process of trying to get his wife to America as well. Moumouni was a nurse before he moved to America and sadly he doesn't qualify to be a nurse here, so he is working at JBS (a pork factory). This family is literally so strong, so respectful, and so happy. I am SO blessed to have been able to be a part of their conversion. Some of the ward members called them "dry Mormons" before they got baptized, because they basically were already living all of the commandments! They were truly so prepared.

Here's the rundown on Roy. His parents are both members, they used to be a little less active in the church. Roy is 16 and thinks he was baptized already when he was 8, but they couldn't find the record of it anywhere. So we did all of the lessons with him and it was actually an amazing experience for him because he didn't know much about the church. He loves parqour and is all round just an awesome guy. SO HAPPY FOR THESE PEOPLE!!!! I wish I could introduce all of them to you guys.

Some miracles this week:

During the time that all of them were changing into their dry clothes, the president of our branch called me out and had me come introduce myself to the branch. I was caught off guard, but I talked about how I know ASL. A lady in the branch named Sister Postma went up to the pulpit when I was done and was crying, saying she knows why I was called to this area. Her brother is deaf and she's been praying for someone to be able to teach him about this gospel for so long! Hopefully I will get to meet him and teach him in ASL in the next week or so. YAY!

There's a girl we started teaching last week named Hei Gay Moo -- she only speaks Korin. (Not Korean, Korin) -- We have an Elder in our zone that we call over facebook and he translates for us as we teach her. It's hard because they don't have a Book of Mormon in Korin! But we show her pictures and try to explain them haha. Anyways, we met her sister last week and started teaching her too! She speaks English. We were explaining to her where our church was located and at the end of the lessons she's like "wait a minute! My husband used to go to that church!" We looked him up, and sure enough he was a member! Crazy huh?? We are hoping to start teaching him soon. The Lord really does put people on our path!

Another funny thing from this week: My companion sometimes forgets that there are more languages than English and Spanish. So whenever she sees someone who isn't white, she says "Hola como esta?!?!" It's pretty embarrassing when she says that to a group of Asian people. Yes, it's happened more than once. Yes, it's hilarious and embarrassing every time. 

I love you all so much!!! There are literally SO many miracles everywhere we look here. If you are trying your hardest to serve the Lord and keep his commandments, he will bless you so much. If you look for His hand in your life, you WILL find it. He's truly leading and guiding you everywhere you go, every second of the day. I know this is true!!! 

I love you all, have an amazing week :)

--Hermana Hansen 

Pictures:

1-3: the baptism!!!

4: We made the mistake of asking the boys what food they wanted at the baptism. Remember the service was at 8:30AM. But yet one wanted pizza, one wanted rice, and one wanted cheesecake. When we told the relief society president the menu she basically told us we were on our own with that and she was gonna bring cinnamon rolls. HAHA our bad. 

5: Sorry this pic is nasty. But I ATE THAT can you believe it??? It was actually pretty good too. I also ate some cow intestine this week. People feed ya some weird stuff here 

6: The lake we live by!!! 

Car fast, exchanges, sandbags, and miracles July 23,2018

FAMILIA Y AMIGOS!!!!

Where do I start?! This week went by so much faster than last, and it was such a great one. 

When you're on a mission you honestly hit every emotion in the book in a single day. On Tuesdays we do a "car fast" day where we don't drive to preserve miles and to make us get out and work more. We had an appointment with the Zeba family (who are all on date for baptism on Saturday WOOHOO) and they live across town. We called the members that live close by to give us a ride and none of them could, so we walked for an entire hour to get there. Half way through the walk I thought I was gonna die. I was hot, tired, sweaty, we had talked to every single person that was outside and none were interested -- I basically just wanted to give up. I decided to try to make the day a little more fun because I was sick of feeling that way, so my comp and I started waving at every single car that passed and I would count everyone who waved back. Want to know how many people waved back by the end of the day? Drumroll... 100!!!!!! I know it sounds silly, but it honestly kept me going that day. It's honestly the little miracles that make missionary work so fun!!! I also think my comp could tell that I was getting a little worn out, so on the way home we stopped at an ice cream shop by the lake and treated ourselves. Blessed. 

Wednesday was the hardest day for me so far, which is sad because it was also my trainer's birthday! I made her some waffles for breakfast and celebrated with a member that evening, it was awesome. But unfortunately during the middle of the day I had hit an all time low, my companion asked what was on my mind and I just started crying, que oso. (Que oso directly translates to "what bear" but apparently in Mexico it's slang for "how embarrassing," funny right?) I told her that being a missionary was harder than I ever could have imagined -- I'm not used to knocking on doors and people looking at me like I'm a crazy person, I'm not used to talking about my religion 24/7, I'm not used to this many people turning us away, I'm not used to working with everything I have to offer from 6:30AM to 9PM, it's so hard. As I explained my feelings, my companion started crying too. She just talked me through it and was honestly just so Christlike. Wow. On her BIRTHDAY too. What an angel. But after that I felt so much better, a good cry can do a person wonders apparently. 

On one morning before this incident I was on a jog with my companion and the thought crossed my mind, "Oh man, I really don't want to be a missionary today." Almost instantly after I thought that, a new thought popped into my head, "Did the Son of God ever think to himself, 'I really don't want to be the Son of God today.'" The answer is no, He never thought that. He never thought that because He is perfect, and His will was swallowed up the Father's will. He never thought that, and yet he suffered infinitely and incomprehensibly more than I have, or anyone ever has. I realized that I have NO room to think that, because Christ has ultimately sacrificed everything so that I could be happy. And I know for a fact that that thought was not put into my head by myself, that was the Spirit reminding me who I am representing. I am a representative of Jesus Christ. Will I ever be able to live up to His name? Of course not. But I know that through Him I can and will become the best and happiest missionary I can be, and He will be walking with me every step of the way. 

On Friday we had exchanges with our Sister Training leaders in Omaha and it was just wonderful. Turns out that every single appointment they had that day fell through, so what did that leave us with? Door knocking. What is the one thing that I am still terrified out of my mind for? Door knocking. But guess what? We knocked on doors ALL day, and it was literally the most amazing experience of my life. I learned SO much from Sister Olsen and her techniques that day, I learned that if you focus on LOVING the person you're talking to then everything goes smoothly from there! From that we saw so many miracles and found I think 4 new people to teach! What an incredible experience. I never knew that knocking on doors could end up being so fun. 

On Saturday we had this AWESOME service project for our stake. Crazy how at home I used to kind of dread service projects (hate to admit it) but now it's like my favorite thing ever! There was a lot of flooding in the northern part of our area so we went and helped everyone get rid of the sandbags in front of their houses (they used them to block the water). We probably hauled off like 1000 sandbags, boy were they heavy and boy were they dirty! But you should have seen the graditude from the people we helped, it was so wonderful. 

Lastly, we saw so many miracles yesterday. We realized that we have to kind of take charge and plan the baptism that's happening on Saturday for the Zeba family (from Africa) and a youth named Roy. First off these people are so amazing. GOLDEN!!! They keep commitments like it's nobody's business, they've truly been prepared by Heavenly Father for us to come teach them. Anyways, we were stressed out of our minds because Roy found out his brother had a basketball tournament during the baptism so we had to reschedule. But we didn't want to split the baptisms -- that would be hard on the branch because so many live far away, it would be double the driving, double the food, etc. After a million complications we realized that the baptism pretty much HAD to be on Saturdayfor both Roy and the Zebas. So after a lot of stress, thought, prayer, and calling a ton of people... my companion opened to a random page in the Book of Mormon hoping for some guidance and she opens to Alma 42:29: 

"And now, my son, I desire that ye should let these things trouble you no more." 

MIRACLE??? I think yes. Heavenly Father WILL talk to you through the Book of Mormon, it's a fact. Eventually we came to the conclusion that we would have to do the baptism at 8:30AM on that day. We were stressed because it was so early, but EVERYONE in the ward immediately was on board. M.i.r.a.c.l.e. 

Missionary work is AMAZING, despite the low moments I truly am experiencing more joy than I thought was ever possible as I see the happiness of those that are accepting this gospel. I'm so so so happy. Sorry that my emails are so long, I love you all so much. Have a great week :)

Con amor, 
Hermana Hansen 

I MADE IT TO NEBRASKA!!!

HELLO EVERYONE!!!! I officially made it through my first week in the field! I never thought this day would come. 

My first area is WORTHINGTON, MINNESOTA!!! My birth state! My trainer is Hermana Thacker and she is just wonderful. I was terrified to get a new companion and trainer because I love Hermana Iverson with all my heart. But I already love Hermana Thacker so much, she is like my big sister and I feel like I've known her all my life. She trusts me a lot and tells me that I came "pre-trained" which definitely isn't true, but she does boost my confidence a lot. 

THE AREA:

The second I got off the plane in Omaha the humidity hit me like a train, the air is so thick here that I could drink it. It's a little less humid in Minnesota though, we're about 3.5 hours away from the mission home! My companion and I are the ONLY missionaries in this entire area, so we teach in both Spanish and English! It is truly a blessing that we don't have to refer any of the English speakers because we love them so much. 

This area is SO cute. Everything is very old fashioned and our apartment is in the middle of downtown Worthington right next to a beautiful lake that we jog by each morning! The people that live here live in very humble abodes. There are WAY more Hispanics here than I expected, when we go tracting I feel like we are mostly speaking spanish! 

I have learned why everyone says "missionary work is hard." I have never experienced anything harder in my life honestly. There is not a second of the day that you can think about yourself, and I've learned that the times I DO think about myself are the hardest ones. The moments that I've wondered, "Why did I decide to come on a mission? I could be at home with my mom watching TV and eating popcorn!" are the absolute hardest moments. But the second I get out and start to work, I remember why I decided to come on a mission. Because this is the MOST important work on earth, and EVERYONE needs the happiness that comes from the gospel. And it is my job to proclaim the truth! 

We do a LOT of tracting here! It is always hard when people turn us away because I have realized that as representatives of Jesus Christ that people are really turning away Christ. They are turning away HOPE, HAPPINESS, SALVATION! It really is heartbreaking. One day it was about time to go home and we decided to try one more door. My companion does this thing where she knocks really hard and earnestly because people tend to come to the door more often when it sounds urgent -- and our message is! She knocks 3 times, so that if they are home they have 3 chances to open the door. We were on our 3rd knock when she knocked louder than ever, and this hispanic lady comes rushing to the door and is speaking very fast spanish. She said something like, "Why are you knocking like it's an emergency?! You scared me to death!!!" We were slightly embarrassed and apologized, and before we could even start our message she invited us in!!! That pretty much never happens -- so we were pretty excited. But as we started to share our message her husband walks in and tries to start bible bashing. We could hardly get a word out because he was preaching so much to us about why he was right and we were wrong. I was very thankful that there was a language barrier at that moment because I didn't really want to hear what he was saying. After our short message we left, and his wife peeked her head out the door and said, "so are you still going to continue your work after what my husband said?" And we both said "YES." Of course we are! We are not going to stop sharing our message just because there are people that are against us. We hold with us the TRUTH that people need, a message of happiness, hope, and change through our loving Savior. NOTHING and NO ONE is going to stop us! 

Although there will be opposition everywhere we go, we truly see so many miracles. We are teaching a lot of wonderful people, and have a baptism set in a couple of weeks for the most amazing family I have ever met. We are so excited! They are the Zeba families and they came to America from West Africa. I will tell you all about them later on. 

Another miracle I have seen is through the scriptures. Every time I open the scriptures, Heavenly Father answers my prayers. These scriptures really opened my eyes and helped me to see how important my calling is:

Alma 29:9 I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.

Alma 26:30 And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.

Alma 29:6 Now, seeing that I know these things, why should I desire more than to perform the work to which I have been called?

A few other things:

The members here are WONDERFUL. Our branch is very small and very very spread out. So it's really hard for the members to feed us that often because they all live so far away, but they all would if they could. And the times that we get to have meals with them are truly wonderful, they are some of the most amazing people, and strongest members I've ever met. I am in an english speaking branch but there are a TON of people that only speak spanish, so we translate through headsets during the meetings. Luckily I didn't have to do it since this is my first week, but I will be soon! Very nerve racking. 

One of the best miracles I've seen is that I get to teach in AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE!!! I have been praying for that opportunity for probably a year now. And last week some elders from Iowa called and said there are 2 deaf guys that want to be taught!!! So sooner than later I will be video-calling them and I'll start teaching them. I could not be more excited. What an amazing blessing.

This is the address to my mission home if you would like to send packages:

Nebraska Omaha Mission
11027 Martha Street
Omaha, NE 68144-3107

This is the address to my apartment for letters!

1006 4th Ave., Apt 2
Worthington, MN 56187 

I love you all so much, I hope you have a wonderful week! 

1. My district on our last P-day at the CCM

2. Me with my new mission presidents the first day we got here! We stayed the night on Monday and on Tuesday we spent the whole day doing some training and we got to go walk around the temple and tour the trail center in Omaha! It was awesome. We spent both nights in a hotel and I met my trainer on Wednesday morning. Hermana Iverson and I popped popcorn and ate oreos on our last night together in the hotel -- it was a great final night!

3. My new Mom!!! (Sister Thacker)

4. Arriving in Minnesota :)

5. We made fried rice for dinner one night and it was so good we had to take a picture!

Con amor, 

Hermana Hansen

Made it to Omaha!

I just got this text from Mara! We got to talk to her today when she was on a layover. She is so happy and excited!

Hi mom this is Mara on one of the senior missionaries phones! I am safe in Omaha after a few plane delays! Surrounded by LOVING people, my P-day is on Monday so I'll talk to you then! Love you!

More CCM pics

TRC, Cake, and Kickball

Hola familia!!!! 

This is my LAST WEEK at the CCM. Seems like just yesterday I was getting off the plane, and on Monday morning I'm headed back to the states. Wow. Do I know Spanish yet? No. Am I terrified? A little. But through Jesus Christ, TODO LE ES POSIBLE! 

On Thursday we had our last TRC, teaching volunteer members from Mexico City. Wow. It was incredible, sometimes I pinch myself when I talk to Latinos and they UNDERSTAND me, I still can't believe it. Side note, like 2 months ago when I was in California with my mom and sisters, an elderly Latina lady looked at me and said "Baño?" The poor lady just wanted to know where the bathroom was, but I was so clueless I just stared at her wide-eyed until my sister came and saved me with directions for her. But now by some miracle called the Spirit and the gift of tongues, my Spanish is sufficient enough for them to understand. Anyway, we gave a simple message about Christ and His Atonement and the hermana we taught was in tears, the spirit was so strong. It's amazing how even through very broken, simple Spanish, the spirit testifies of truth, and our message was exactly what she needed to hear. 

This week was so fun because one of my roommates, Hermana Braun. We literally had 4 PARTIES because the Latinas love fiestas. The BEST part is that she shares a birthday with Hermana Bennett, the president's wife!!! That night I was taking a shower at about 9:30, when my roommates started pounding on the door and yelling, "HERMANA HANSEN GET OUT OF THE SHOWER WE'RE GOING TO THE BENNETT'S!!!!" Sister Bennett had knocked on our door and invited us over for CAKE! They live right across the street from us so I threw on some pjs as fast as I could and we ran over. We shared a DELICIOUS multi-layer, homemade, chocolate fudge cake made by President Bennett himself. They told us story after story and showed us a lot of pictures. I feel so so blessed to have gotten to know them, what AMAZING people. While we were eating cake, President Bennett goes, "Hermana Hansen, if you were in the Provo MTC do you think you'd be eating cake at the president's house right now?" And I was like, "There's NO WAY!" I KNOW I was sent to the Mexico CCM at that specific time for a reason, and a big part of that was so I could get to know the Bennetts personally. Also, at the end of the night they invited us over for green smoothies for P-day!!! We enjoyed those at their house this morning. 

A few other funny things from this week:

We've been getting to know one of the new districts in our zone pretty well and we challenged them to a game of kickball for gym time on Saturday. There's a rule here that you can't keep score if you play sports during gym so it won't get "competitive." I always thought that rule was kind of lame, but it all made sense after this. It was literally the most INTENSE game I've ever experienced. Our entire district is really unathletic, and the one we were playing against is like straight out of Olympic training. I wish I could describe better what went down during this game. But I'll just put it this way: it's a good thing we aren't allowed to keep score because I don't think I could have counted how many runs the other team had on us. Also, I don't think trash talk is allowed in the CCM but there was definitely some of that goin on. And to tie it all together this kid pinched a nerve in his back because someone bodyslammed him sliding into 1st base, so that wasn't good. Yup. Last time we're ever playing kickball. 

Another funny thing that happened was one day me and my comp were in a rush for breakfast, and half way through our meal this girl looks at me funny and goes, "Hermana Iverson?" And I looked down and sure enough I was wearing Hermana Iverson's NAME TAG. She was still getting her food so in the midst of my laughter I ran up to see if she was wearing her other nametag, but SHE WAS WEARING MINE!!!!! We couldn't stop laughing because we both had adjusted our name tags in the mirror that morning and NEITHER of us noticed. 

Missionary brain, it's real.

This week has been rough on my brain because it's been "solo Español." It definitely has taken a toll on me. On Monday our brains were FRIED, so inbetween classes my companion and I decided to lay in the grass and take a few minutes to soak everything in. We sprawled out on the grass and 3 other girls decided to join us. Everyone that walked by busted out laughing and a worker pulled out his camera and took a picture. Apparently it's a sight to see 5 missionaries sprawled out like dead women in the grass. The CCM will do it to ya!

I can't believe on Monday I'll finally be in Omaha. I can't wait to finally start this crazy adventure and to find the people the Lord called me to find. I love this work!

Happy 4th of July everyone,
--Hermana Hansen 

Pictures: Sorry if these get mixed up, it's because I have to send them from my phone.

1. Our district at of the parties for Hermana Braun 

2. This morning when we had green smoothies at the Bennett's house!

3. Last week with the President

4. Our favorite worker, Juan! When we have service projects we rake the grass with him. Good times. 

Semana Cuatro

Hola!!!

It's scaring me how fast the weeks have  been going. We're on our 5th week and we'll be out of here before we know it. It's pretty scary considering I still don't know Spanish, but I know with hard work and the help of the Lord it will come.

This week me and my companion got assigned to be the new sister training leaders! It's given us the opportunity and blessing to befriend the new girls in our zone.

The best part about being a missionary so far is the PEOPLE. If you know me at all I'm like 90% extrovert, so being with people constantly gives me enough energy to make it through the long days. I've gotten so close to everyone in my district and my teachers, we've become each other's families. Saying goodbye to them is going to be SO hard because I don't even know if I'll see a lot of them again. But I also know that I was sent to the Mexico MTC for a reason. So I could be with these people, to be with my companion, and so I could meet the president.

This week my poor companion and another one of my roommates have super bad coughs that have resulted in a few sleepless nights (no exaggeration), poor girls. But by some miracle I've been able to have sufficient energy to last our long days filled with lessons and classes. Heavenly Father has truly blessed me with energy as I've strived to be an obedient missionary. My companion received a blessing from the zone leader in our district because she was feeling pretty sick, and it was truly amazing. He blessed her that as she studied the scriptures and was obedient she would get better. And that night after studying our scriptures she slept through the night. The priesthood IS REAL and it's truly the power of God. How amazing is it that OUR CHURCH is the only church that has the same priesthood that Christ's church had thousands of years ago.

We have like 33 new people in our zone which insane, the CCM is expanding every week! When I got here there were about 150 people, now we have almost 500 and it's just going to continue increasing! There's a group of Haitians that just got here and they'll be trained in their language of Creole. Me and some others in our district have befriended the Haitian teachers that came this week and they are some of the coolest people I've ever met. They know Creole, French, Spanish, and English. What remarkable people.

When the Haitians first came we went and greeted them and they gave us all hugs and they have the SWEETEST spirits. I seriously felt like crying seeing their shining faces, we couldn't speak to them because they don't know English or Spanish but if there's anything I've learned at the CCM it's that love is a REAL language. And the Holy Spirit knows all languages and can carry that love into each other's heart, regardless if there is a language barrier. This work is hastening and it's universal. So amazing.

I experience the language barrier every single day, every HOUR in the CCM -- but through the love we have for each other we make it work. You should see us with the Latinos at lunch, it's a literal Fiesta. We bond over songs that we both know and find any way that we can connect and just find ourselves laughing our heads off. This one Latino Elder drenches his rolls with mayo during lunch. Couldn't tell you why, he says its delicioso. But we got a KICK out of that.

 One of the "investigators" we have has been very difficult to teach because we struggle so bad to understand her. We couldn't really find her needs because when we'd ask questions we would just kind of nod and smile, pretending like we understood, but it was really going right over our  heads. We realized that we were struggling because we didn't really LOVE her or connect with her as well as we were with our other investigators. We've learned that one way to recieve the gift of tongues is to love the people. So we prayed hard to find the love in our hearts that God feels for her, and to help us focus on her and her needs. After we did this we were able to understand nearly everything she said to us -- we found her needs and were able to share what she needed to hear. We truly felt more connected with her. LOVE is a real language. 

We have felt this love for each other, the CCM workers, the Latino missionaries, members that we've taught in TRC (when we teach volunteer members that live in the Mexico city area). How amazing.

I love this work. I love these people. The Lord has SO much in store for us and a plan for each of us individually. I know thst for a FACT. I know I'm still only in the CCM, but it's still not easy. I am so far from perfect and have SO far to go. It's truly such a humbling experience -- but it's already brought me closer to Christ than anything else in my life. I've only been out for like 4 weeks, but if I came home now I would live my life differently.

Love you and miss you all, you're in my prayers! Hasta proxima semana <3

-Hermana Hansen 

Pictures:

1. Selfie with my companion!
2. This was so funny. So if you swing my umbrella really hard it opens up like a light saber, so naturally I swung it like a light saber a lot. I was reciting the 1st vision in spanish and I swung it out right as I was saying "directamente arriba de mi cabeza" and apparently I launched it so hard that the top came off. Whoops. I guess it's true what they say, the spirit gives you strength! Luckily I had time to buy another umbrella at the tienda before the next storm -- I got to the CCM just in time for rainy season. It rains every day!

3. Me and my comp bought matching CCM t-shirts at the tienda! 

4. These are the Hatian teachers, Hermano Jaques and Reymond! We love them.

5. Our district at volleyball this morning!

6. My comp <3

7. A selfie with the new Hatian district! Love them!