Playing Monopoly with my district

October 6 2014

This general conference was amazing! It was so spiritually uplifting and I heard and learned a few things that I think were directly meant for me or my investigators. I got to watch 3 of the 4 sessions, and even better in English with an Hermana named Belkiss! She is so great and I am grateful that she could watch it with me. I loved when Neil L Anderson quoted our prophet saying "...No force in the entire world can stop the work of God." This is something that I have to remind myself often when things don't turn out how I thought or hoped they would have. For example, this Saturday we were supposed to have a baptism, but our investigator didn't show up to the conference or to his baptism that was going to happen afterwards. I was pretty upset and heart-broken, which I think is a sign that I have gained a true love for all of my investigators in this area. But, the closing hymn of the Sunday morning session has a line that hit me pretty hard. It says, "Fear not I am with thee oh be not dismayed; For I am thy God and will still give thee aid." That was exactly what I needed to hear to feel the love and comfort from my savior that everything was going to be alright. Also, President Monson stressed the importance of walking AS Christ. In our path we will find bitter sorrow, but also great happiness and joy. However, to we must strive to place Christ in the center of our lives.  I hope you all got the opportunity to hear the words of our beloved prophet and his apostles and learned something that will bring you closer to our savior Jesus Christ. I know with all my heart that this church is true and that it was restored through Joseph Smith. I know that Thomas S. Monson is our true and living prophet on the earth today and that his words are the words of God. If we heed the words of our prophet I know that we will witness miracles and witness important changes in our lives. I share this small portion of my testimony with you in the name of Jesus Christ Amen. 

With Much Love,

Hermana Hansen

September 29 2014 Diego

September 29 2014

My Dearest Family,

   This week we had inter-cambios again and this time I got to stay in Country and Hna Ludlow came to visit me for a day. It was super fun and I didn't realize how much I've missed speaking English until she came. I learned a couple things from her, 1. The time passes by so quickly on the mission so we have to take advantage of every moment and enjoy it and use the time we are given wisely and 2. In the mission I've learned to have a different idea of what is clean and what is dirty. For example in the morning sometimes I pour out my cereal and find ants in, but we've found that the best solution is to just pour in the milk wait about 6 seconds for all the ants to run out and then enjoy the wonderful, nutritious bowl of cereal.... Ya, I don't think I ever would have done that at home, but you do what you gotta do in the mission.

   Also, we had a baptism this week!!! His name is Diego and he's 9 years old. His mom is a recent convert also, but they were super wonderful and supportive in his baptism. His dad, Orlin, spoke and shared a brief, but powerful testimony about the temple and the desire he has to go there with his wife and family someday. It was a  beautiful heart-touching testimony. Watching one of your converts get baptized is one of the most rewarding things that can happen on the mission.

   My companion and I have also learned this week that it is better to be direct when teaching rather than beat-around-the-bush. The scriptures tell us (in 1 Nephi) that the wicked will take the truth to be hard, but in D&C it tells us that God's chosen will hear word and accept the invitation to repent and be baptized. So when we teach directly we are able to find out if the people we are teaching are chosen or if it isn't quite their time yet. I really love being a missionary and love sharing the gospel with others everyday. Sometimes it's a little frustrating and we have our low times, but the baptisms and high times more than make up for those rough days. I love you all so much!

Con Amor,

Hermana Hansen

September 22 2014

My companion and I had an AWESOME week! It was a little frustrating the first 2 weeks, because we hardly had any investigators and less progressing. But, this week was completely different. We found so many new people to teach and a lot of them actually have a desire to hear our message and ask God if this is all true. I have this great feeling that we're going to start having some baptisms in the next couple of weeks. I'm not exactly sure when, but I've got faith that it's going to happen. I've learned this week that sometimes we make awesome plans that we think our perfect, but then we head out the door and our day goes not even close to according to plan. However, this week, those days were the most successful and best days we had. It's funny how God works sometimes. He tries to teach us the importance of relying on him always. And even though we had some CRAZY days, this week has been the best week I've had in a while. We were also super blessed to have a Reunion de Nuevos, with all the trainers and their trainees this week and it was wonderful. President talked a lot about the importance of having unity in your companship and how we always have to work together and treat each other as equals despite how much time we have in the mission. Lucky for me, Hna Almendras and I get along super well and we don't really have problems with unity. So my short, spiritual message for this week is, When we have sufficient faith, nothing is impossible! Remember that always and our lives will be a lot better. Thanks for all the prayers and support and I love you all tons!

Con Mucho Amor,

  Hermana Hansen

September 15, 2014

Querido Familia,

   This past Tuesday I had the opportunity to go to the temple for the 2nd time here in the mission and it was beautiful and amazing as always. Our mission President always stresses the importance of going to the temple with a question in mind, because when we´re in the temple we are more open to receive personal revelation. My question this week was... How can I fully give myself over to the Lord? Right now I’m trying so hard to lose myself in this work, but sometimes it´s hard with the daily distractions that we have every day. As I was sitting and pondering after the session I got my answer. If I really, truly have a desire to lose myself in this work I have to love the people, and if I want to truly love the people I have to think of them and treat them as if they were my own family. And that shouldn´t be so hard seeing that we literally are brothers and sisters here on the earth. So, I made a goal that from here on out I´m going to teach every person as if they were my brother or sister or my aunt or uncle. I know if we have that kind of mindset it will be nearly impossible to not have deep love for each person that we teach. But, with everything there is opposition. In this week we lost two investigators... they told us that they couldn´t meet with us anymore because of one thing or another or just that they weren´t interested. It was heart breaking for me and my trainee, but we´re moving forward with our chins up and with faith that there are other people out there just waiting to hear about the gospel. Remember that nothing is impossible with God and that we can overcome any obstacle with his help. I love you all so much!

Sigan Adelante!

Much Love

Hermana Brooklyn Hansen