TMJ, Halloween, Tanta Comida, Miracles :)

October 29, 2018

Hola Familia y Amigos!!!!

This was such an amazing and eventful week!!!! 

So this whole week I've been having some weird problems with my jaw. So my jaw has always popped a lot, but this week it was like a lot worse than usual. It was like pretty tight and sore for a few days in a row this week, but I wasn't too worried about it because that has happened before and it usually goes away. BUT, on Friday morning I woke up and went to go brush my teeth, but to my surprise I couldn't open my mouth without shooting pain up and down my jaw and in my ear! And then I couldn't close my teeth together either without the same pain! I told Sister Thacker and I was in so much pain that I just burst into tears hahaha it was so sad. Long story short I went to the dentist and apparently I have TMJ. Apparently it's a type of "temporomandibular distorder" which "can cause pain in your jaw joint and in the muscles that control jaw movement." Apparently there isn't much you can do for it besides take ibuprofen and pray, haha. But after doing that for a couple days the inflammation went down and I can eat normal food and close and open my mouth without pain again! So that's a blessing. We had dinner with some members named Sonia and Alexis that night and they always feed us some hardcore hispanic food (it's so good -- they feed us twice a week, so I can blame the weight I've gained on them haha). I let them know I couldn't eat much that night and they made me some soup. Angels. 

This week we also had our Branch Halloween party! Hermana Thacker and I dressed up as pioneers. We were SO happy because a family we are teaching came to the party, and a ton of non-members! We were just busy doing missionary work all night long and talking to everyone, playing with the kids, and eating candy. It was honestly one of the funnest nights of my mission!!! 

Here's an update on Dora: One night we stopped by to teach a lesson, but she was very busy getting ready for work and cooking dinner (at 8:30 at night, haha) that she had to cancel. But naturally she invited us in for food. We had just finished eating at Sonia's house like an hour earlier (the member I mentioned that feeds us hard-core hispanic food) and we were SO FULL. But something I have learned on my mission is that you can never turn down food from a Hispanic. They won't allow it! So Hermana Thacker and I sat down and started eating. We were trying not to laugh/cry the whole time because we were SO FULL. Also, Hermana Thacker is kind of allergic to corn, it makes her pretty sick. The Hispanics give you a lot of corn tortillas. As we both took our last bites of food, we tried to stand up to leave, but Dora came back in with SECONDS, and corn tortillas! We sat back down and rolled up our sleeves. As Dora went back into the kitchen, Hermana Thacker looked at me with pleading in her eyes. I looked back and nodded. I knew what she needed me to do (eat her corn tortilla for her). I took it, folded it in half, and ate it in like 2 bites with a drink of water. It was gone before Dora came back into the room. Desperate times come to desperate measures. We were honestly pretty proud of ourselves when we returned our empty plates to her. Who knew the Spirit could help make more room in your stomach too? It was truly a blessing. Sadly though, we will have to move Dora's baptismal date back because she isn't quite ready to be baptized in 2 weeks. Despite her high church attendance, she is a bit of a slow learner so we'll have to re-emphasize some of the commandments before she can be baptized! She is still progressing really well though. :)

The biggest miracle that we saw this week was that Jocelia (the girl we have been teaching in Pipestone -- her mom allows her children to be baptized when they turn 12) is officially being baptized on November 18!!! We finished teaching her and her siblings all of the lessons, but we talked to her Mom a few weeks ago and she was still very hesitant to let Jocelia be baptized. Normally, it's not recommended for children to be baptized without their parents being members. She is a special case though, because she and her siblings have been going to church ever since they were little with some members in their ward. Their mom usually goes too! After MANY prayers, Jocelia's mom said that Jocelia and her 2 younger siblings can all be baptized together!!!! We were so excited. We didn't see it coming that she would allow her siblings to be baptized with her. :)  

This week has been busy, but also so full of the Spirit. Being a missionary is NOT easy! I've been more tired, more homesick, and more stressed than ever before in my life. But at the same time, I have NEVER been happier, and there is NO where I would rather be. That is because I love my Savior Jesus Christ, I love the people, and I know that I have been called by a true prophet and set apart by the Priesthood of God. I love this restored gospel and I know it is true!!!! 

Have an amazing week and eat lots of candy for me!!!! I will be inside studying on Halloween night and couldn't be more excited about it! :)

Con Amor,

Hermana Hansen 

Pictures:

1-2: This is Sonia and Alexis!!!! The ones that feed us twice a week. I love them so much. Sonia is also our Branch Mission Leader!

3-4: Hermana Thacker and I as pioneers at the Halloween Party!

5: The food that Dora gave us when we were already full to the brim!

A few lessons I learned about Love

October 22, 2018

Hola Familia y Amigos!!!!

This week was honestly pretty hard! I feel like we worked harder than we ever have but found ZERO people to teach this week. But we haven't been discouraged at all. I feel that the one thing that kept me going strongly this week was love. Love for the people, love for this area, love for my calling, and love for my Savior, Jesus Christ.

One day this week we decided to go work in Windom, which is about 30 minutes away from our area. We haven't done much finding there, and there a ton of less active members that we wanted to go find and invite to church! We knocked on a less-active member's door, but she wasn't home. So naturally we knocked on her neighbor's door! A family from India answered the door, and they were very kind, but not interested at the moment. The mom actually tried to give us money to give to our church. That was a first! Haha. We thanked her but told her we weren't allowed to take it and directed her to lds.org where she can donate. The miracle happened when we asked them if they knew anyone who would benefit from the message that we share about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Her young son looked up at us and said, "Oh wait, I do!" He tried to describe to us where his friends house was, but we weren't really following. So he put on his shoes and walked with us all the way to his friends house!!!! It was the sweetest thing ever. We met his friend, Simon and talked with his mom a bit. His mom was busy but said we could come back later. We were so touched by the experience that we took a picture with the two boys. I'm starting to think they should send out little kids on missions instead of us. They are FEARLESS! (I know that probably wouldn't be logical though, haha).

This week we taught Dora a lesson about Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. We know for a fact that Sunday is usually the day she does her shopping and goes to the laundromat, so we were a little nervous to teach it. When we extended the commitment to her to keep the Sabbath Day Holy, we were a bit nervous about what she would say. She took a breath, paused, and then she said, "Si, no gastando dinero es facil porque no tengo dinero!!!!" ("Yes, not spending money is easy because I don't have money!!!!!") I was laughing so hard, that was not the response we expected! She was joking of course, but was still serious about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. We are so proud of her readiness to accept the gospel. I can't remember if I mentioned this last week, but we found out her son just turned 8 years old and he will be baptized with her!

I feel that the hardest thing about this week was Sunday. Sunday as a missionary is honestly like running a marathon. In sacrament meeting one of the speakers forgot his talk so they asked us to speak last minute, even though we were already giving the musical number too. I'm beginning to realize that being asked to speak last minute as missionaries isn't uncommon, haha. I spoke first in English, then in Spanish for the Spanish members, and then Hermana Thacker and I sang a duet together, "Come Unto Christ." We recorded one of the practices we did so I'll attach it! We then translated the rest of Sacrament Meeting, taught the lesson in second hour to the Spanish class as usual, and translated in Relief Society as usual. By the end of church I am usually wiped out. At the end of all the classes, a spanish member that we are very close to pulled Hermana Thacker and I aside. We ended up talking to her for 30 minutes. She told us that she is moving to another state for a few months to help one of her daughters that is getting married there. She told us about some trials that her family is facing and Hermana Thacker and I just sat and listened. She has a lot of sad things happening in her family -- things I have heard about my whole life, but never had it sunk so deep into my heart before. I was trying to hold back tears the whole time that she was talking. I felt genuine sadness for her and I had never felt that before. I realized that it was because I love this member SO MUCH. I didn't want her to move away, and I didn't want her to have to go through the hard things she's going through. I didn't know that sadness could come from loving someone and caring about them so much. 

Last night I prayed so hard for that member, and the sadness I had turned into peace and calm. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan and that everything is going to work out. I'm so thankful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ that can take away sadness and pain. Although missionary work can be burdening, I have found that LOVE is always the cure. That's what keeps me going. I am so happy, I love this gospel, and I know that it is true!

I hope you all have a great week!

Con Amor,

Hermana Hansen 

Pictures:

1. This is a lady we are teaching named Leanor! Her cat just had some kittens and she let us hold them after the lesson we had with her. So cute.

2. We ran over a chunk of sharp metal this week and it popped our tire. We had to call a member to come put the spare on for us hahaha. It was so embarrassing and funny. 

3. This the picture we took with the boy we met who walked with us all the way to meet his friend!

4. Thank you to whoever sent us a box of hot chocolate from Amazon!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!! It didn't have a name on it.

5-6: For our preparation day activity today a member invited us over to create these flower pot things made of old tires. It was so fun!!! 

7: This is Hermana Thacker and I practicing for the song we sang in church! (I am the second one that sings)

Defeating the natural man, Snow, and a miracle!

October 15, 2018

Hola familia y amigos!!! 

I'm getting where there is so much that happens in a week that I don't even know where to start! Honestly preparation days are sometimes the hardest days because I feel so focused on myself. If there is anything I've learned, the saddest and hardest times you'll experience on your mission is when you are focused inward, and not outward. I've been trying so hard to learn to be selfless, and I've really realized that is so hard! I'm trying to do my best to rely fully on my Savior and Heavenly Father and what their will is for me, not what my own will is! 

Mosiah 3:19

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." 

I am doing my best to do exactly what that scripture says, and let me tell you, it is not easy! For example: This morning I was hoping to get out the door as soon as possible and go buy our groceries so we could get to the library sooner so I could upload my pictures onto the computer and delete them off my phone to free up some storage. Turns out we were out the door a lot later than expected because cleaning the apartment seemed to take a lot longer than usual... I was trying my BEST to be patient but was still feeling a bit irritated. The store seemed to take a lot longer than usual too. When we FINALLY got home, I realized something. I had no idea where my phone was! We frantically called Walmart and they said they didn't have it. We drove back to the car wash to see if it fell out of the car -- it hadn't. So finally we drove back to Walmart to see if we had accidentally left it in the cart. Unfortunately, the cart we had left outside had already been taken back inside by a worker. We found a worker and explained the issue, and we looked at the long rows of carts and he explained that it could honestly be anywhere inside of them, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. He had us follow him to the very back of the rows of carts and a miracle happened! After just a few minutes of looking he found it in the middle of one of the rows. Wow. He told us, "I could almost hear the little prayers you girls were saying!" I was so thankful that he found my phone, but also so humbled. Losing my phone had lost us almost another hour of the day, and this time my companion had to be patient with me. Now that all of the stress is over I realized how selfish I had been earlier in the day! It really is never about me and never should be. Giving up the natural man is not easy, but I know that through the help of our Savior, Jesus Christ and His Atonement we can improve every single day, little by little! Jesus Christ gave up His will completely, and because of Him, He will help us do the same.

A few things that happened this week:
We had exchanges in Omaha with our Sister Training leaders! It was amazing as always. I learned so much -- especially that being an English missionary is a whole lot different than being a Spanish missionary! That was the first time I had ever tracted a neighborhood full of mansion sized houses. It was definitely a lot different than the humble little neighborhoods we tract on in Worthington. It was a really good experience to have and to help me see how thankful I am to be called to teach in Spanish -- the people truly are so kind and humble and ready for the gospel.

We got hit by like 6 inches or more of snow on Sunday!!!! We were so shocked when we had to scrape the ice off of our car in the morning. It's already mostly melted, but it was definetely a foreshadow of what the winter will be like, I am so nervous! But no matter the weather -- rain, sunshine, or snow, there are people that are looking for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and I am ready to share it with them! 

We also had a lesson with Dora last night and found out that her son Daniel just turned 8 years old yesterday!!! He said he wants to be baptized with his mom!!! He loves primary and we asked what his favorite song was that he has been learning, and he started singing, "I want to be a missionary now!" So cute. Dora is still progressing very fast. We taught her the law of tithing yesterday and asked if she would live it after baptism. She full-heartedly said yes. She told us that a lot of people at work ask her why she doesn't join the Catholic church. She explains that she likes the church she is going to now, and is determined to stay. We are so proud of her and are so excited for her to enter the waters of baptism on November 10th! 

We saw so many more miracles this week. I wish I had time to share them all! I love you all, thank you for all of your prayers and encouragement. I pray for all of you too. Have an amazing week!

Con amor,

Hermana Hansen

Pictures:

1. Sister Thacker and I at the Trail Center in Omaha! Our Sister Training Leaders are serving in the trail center so we got to join them for a training meeting on Saturday. It's always so amazing to be there and remember how much the pioneers sacrificed and did for us.

2-3: The snow on Sunday!!! 

My birthday, Miracles, and General Conference

October 8, 2018

Hola familia y amigos!!!!!

I hope your semana was as good as mine was!!!!! We had transfers this week, and guess what? Hermana Thacker and I are both staying in Worthington!!!! To be honest I was kind of looking forward to the change because I wanted to see if I could make it on my own without my trainer. But it wasn't too long after I realized how amazing it will be with her staying with me. We work so well together, and there is SO much to be done here. We make a pretty great team, so I'm glad she's sticking with me. :) And what's nice is she doesn't feel like my "trainer" anymore, we are equal! Anyways, my week was full of birthday wishes, miracles, and general conference. 

MY BIRTHDAY!

I have heard that having a birthday on your mission isn't that great because it's just another day of work. The work part is true, but I think it was honestly the BEST birthday I've ever had!!! I was SO HAPPY. And the members treated me so good. I literally got 3 birthday cakes haha. And to be quite honest, there's nothing better than thinking about other people on a day that you normally only think about yourself. Thank you for all the birthday wishes, notes, and packages!!!! You guys make me feel so loved. :) 

My birthday made me think of D&C 84:80 

"And any man that shall go and preach this gospel of the kingdom, and fail not to continue faithful in all things, shall not be weary in mind, neither darkened, neither in body, limb, nor joint;and a hair of his head shall not fall to the ground unnoticed. And they shall not go hungry, neither athirst."

The part that says "a hair of his head shall not fall to the ground unnoticed" and "they shall not go hungry" are VERY true things I've felt this week. I got a lot of cake, and felt very appreciated. :)

MIRACLE! 

This week on Friday night we had an appointment with a lady named Evelin. We knocked on her apartment door but she wasn't home. We started to walk back down the stairs, and we've literally knocked on EVERY single door in that apartment before so we weren't planning on trying any again. But suddenly Sister Thacker's face lit up when we were almost to the bottom of the stairs, and she goes, "Wait, we need to go knock on that door." We had knocked it before, but no one answered when we did. So we went and knocked it. A man named Delfino answered, and we he saw it was us he even hung up the phone to talk to us. We shared a brief message about the Restoration, and he got all excited and started asking some questions about infant baptism. As we pulled out our Book of Mormon to share a scripture with him, 4 other men came to the door from inside his apartment. We moved out of the way because we thought they were trying to leave, but they said, "Oh no, we want to listen!" We were able to share a really powerful message with them about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. They even asked if they could have a Book of Mormon! We said a prayer with them and got a return appointment, and we left with big smiles on our faces. It was such a cool experience, and we are teaching 5 new EXCITED people all because Hermana Thacker decided to follow her prompting! We'll need to bring a woman with us next time we come though for sure haha. And don't worry mom, we're trying to get some pepper spray to bring around with us. Safety first! 

GENERAL CONFERENCE!

WOW!!!! I hope you guys were as spiritually edified as I was after this weekend. The moment President Nelson stepped up to the pulpit the spirit nearly overcame me telling me that he IS the prophet of God. I AM SO EXCITED FOR 2 HOUR CHURCH! I truly feel that this will be such a blessing to the church and make it even more family centered. I saw so many reoccurring themes this conference. The work seems to moving FASTER and STRONGER than ever, and I'm realizing that President Nelson really expects a lot out of the members of the church! I was really feeling the importance of REPENTANCE, and staying strong on the covenant path. The Lord needs us now more than ever before to gather Israel, and all of His lost sheep. It's our duty. It's our mission. Also, while he was announcing the 12 new temples, the spirit was so strong. CHILLS!!!! How amazing is it that this work is moving faster than ever before. The second coming is nearer every day. 

While watching general conference, the spirit confirmed to me over and over again that THIS is the place that I need to be right now. Serving the Lord in the Omaha, Nebraska Mission. I feel a special special connection with this place. I meet people on the street that literally look familiar to me. And I know that is because I am out here to find my brothers in sisters that I was in Heaven with in the Pre-Mortal existence. For my entire LIFE I have had the question, "Why did Heavenly Father allow me to be a member of the ONLY true church in the last days?" It just didn't seem fair to me. Why did he choose me, when there are so many left without truth? 

I can say without a SHADOW of a doubt that I know the answer to that question now. I know that I knew and lived with Heavenly Father before I came to this earth. I know He trusted me enough to be here at this time as a member of His Son's Restored church. I know that He gave me great responsibility before I came here and trusts me enough to live up to that responsibility and bring His children back with me, to return to Him in Heaven! I know that Heavenly Father reserved my spirit, along with EVERY other member of the church today, to live on earth at THIS specific time. We are here to gather Israel. And we are going to give it EVERYTHING we got. 

I LOVE THIS RESTORED GOSPEL WITH MY WHOLE HEART!!!!! I love the Book of Mormon, I know it's true. I'm so excited to read the whole thing over again before the end of the year. I love the Prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, I know he is a man of God. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ and I know He lives and makes it possible for us to repent and return!!!

Have an amazing week everyone!!! Love you all!

--Hermana Hansen 

Pictures 1-3: My birthday party at the Kinser family's home :)

4-5: We watched Sunday General Conference at a member's home with one of our recent converts and it was amazing! Here's a picture with them.

6: We went to a pumpkin patch for our Preparation Day activity today:) Notice that I'm wearing a coat and hat. YES IT'S THAT COLD HERE!!!! 

Women's Conference

October 7, 2018

Happy Birthday! October 5, 2018

Zone Conference and Translating!!!!

October 1. 2018

Hola Familia y Amigos!!!

I turn 20 this week!!!! Thank you for those who sent me birthday wishes! Also, I hit my 4th month mark this week. Time has flown, but at the same time I feel like I've been on my mission forever. Bien loco.

This week we had Zone Conference and we had the privilege of hearing from Elder Anderson (of the 70, not of the 12). It was probably one of the most spiritually edifying meetings of my life. Sister Thacker played the violin and did a BEAUTIFUL job, it really brought the spirit!

Some of the key points I learned at conference was that we need to be BOLD! We see patterns in the scriptures of the prophets and Jesus Christ Himself being extremely bold in the doctrine. He taught that we should never be afraid of hard doctrine. We need to teach simply, and very straight forward, and the spirit will do the rest! For example, when teaching someone who is a strong member of another faith, we need to bear testimony by saying: "We know that this is the ONLY true church on Earth, and living the gospel is the ONLY way we can return back to our Heavenly Father again." We cannot be afraid of telling the truth, whether they are from a different religion or not! 

Looking back at the 2 transfers I've been here, I realized I have not been as bold as I need to. Sister Thacker and I tend to find a LOT of people to teach here in Worthington, but we've seen a pattern that most of them end up not really being interested, or they just never answer the phone or the door. At the end of the conference, we ran into Sister Anderson and we were able to talk to her one-on-one! She asked Sister Thacker and I specifically if we had any questions. We asked how we could avoid this problem. She gave us the most amazing advice. She told us the most effective door approach she has ever seen has been stated something like this:

"We are Missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we have a message that will change your life. We are looking for people who are ready to repent of their sins and be baptized into Jesus Christ's church, which has been restored and is back on the earth today. Are you interested?"

Usually when we do door approaches we have some small talk and give a short restoration lesson and ask if we can come back and teach more, and the Hispanics here are amazingly nice, whether or not they're really interested, so they usually say yes. We've realized that because of this, we haven't been finding people who are really READY! So this week we have been trying out this approach. We've noticed a huge change. We haven't have found as many people to teach, but the few we found seem to be truly eager, and ready to make changes in their lives!

It's been an amazing week. Another highlight is that Dora came to Stake Conference (which was broadcasted to our church because it was in Sioux Falls, SD), even though she couldn't understand anything. A couple other spanish families came, and the headsets for translating were not working. It was very stressful! We gathered all of the Spanish speakers out in the hall so they could still see the screen, and translated conference for 2 HOURS!!! It was literally so stressful and Sister Thacker and I wanted to cry afterward. We're pretty sure most of the spanish members couldn't really hear or understand our broken spanish either. We were so thankful when some of the English speakers in the ward saw our stress. They noticed that it really isn't ideal for us to be translating for that long, especially when the Spanish Speakers can't really understand us. One of our English members had an AMAZING idea that we should split up the Spanish and English members during sacrament meeting and have the Spanish members do the 1st hour together in the Primary room! Then they can actually be involved in giving talks, and edify each other in their own language. The idea is going up to be discussed in the Stake Council, so we will be PRAYING that this change can happen in our branch! That would be so huge for our members.

I tried so hard to make my email short this week but it still ended up being super long. Sorry bout that. I guess I just can't help but share how amazing this work is!!!! I am so happy! I am officially done being trained, tomorrow we find out if Sister Thacker is being transferred!

Have an amazing General Conference weekend everyone! Love you!!!

--Hermana Hansen--

Pictures:

1-2: We got to carpool to Zone Conference with HERMANA IVERSON! It's always such a thrill to see her. She even remembered that my birthday is this Friday, October 5th!!! They made me brownies. (Notice the fake candles, we can't use fire as missionaries hahaha)

3. Zone Conference! (It was combined with half of the mission)

4. We got Tres-Leches at the Panaderia today! A cute hispanic bakery outside our apartment :)