Week 17 in CO - Apr 27

Hey everyone!

     This week...what to even say.... sorry this will be kinda short

 

     We saw some amazing miracles but also a period of heartache.

 

     We are teaching a part member family who I love so much! Last transfer we took a chance one day and stopped by and started teaching them. Now, the young woman we teach says that her non-member husband wants us to teach him! We went over for their son's birthday to help them for a bit and it was a blast! It is a witness to me that we can't just be missionaries. We have to be people that others can trust and love. Heavenly Father gives us personalities for a reason and now it is becoming something more. I don't know what I would do without the people I have in my life now! One of them is Stella. We had a bit of a scare this week that broke my heart but God hears and answers our prayers and now everything is okay and she will be baptized on the 31st of May.

 

     Another young woman we are teaching is going to start FHE in her family in order to help her husband feel the Spirit and soften his heart. She is an example to me of acting in faith. She has been doing everything we have asked her to do and knows that the church is true. And because she is willing to act on the answers she has received, we and she can see that the Lord is softening his heart and it is a miracle!

 

     Next weekend, we are going to be doing a temple tour with a few of the people we are teaching and I am so stoked!! Also, I just realized how terrible my English is and I am so sorry!

 

     This week I realized what a treasure it is to be a missionary. There were a few things we got to do that are so precious. We got to help Ivancito with his homework and then last night he told us he wants us to teach him so he can get baptized! It's little things like that are the moments I have come to treasure. The Savior gives us a tiny portion of the love He has for these people and we get to feel it. When that love motivates what we do, it changes everything. We had a Stake Women's activity about women in the scriptures and it was so amazing! If I could be half as cool as them it will be a good day!

 

     Next week I celebrate my 6th month mark...and that is super depressing because that means that I only have a year left! And technically I won't be a greenie anymore and that scares me to death! I have no clue what I am doing still! My Spanish sounds like nails on a chalk board..not really but you get the idea...but it is times like the ones above everyday that that stuff doesn't matter. And that gives me the assurance that one day it will be okay. Because that is why the Savior did what He did. So that everything will be okay if we trust Him...because that is the only intelligent thing to do. I am so excited for all of you who are willing to take el desafio del Libro de Mormon! You are all going to love it! A common saying among the missionaries in this area is "The Church is true and the Book is blue" amen to that!

 

Hope you all have an amazing week!!

Love Hermana Hansen  

 

Week 8 in CO - Feb 23

Goooooooood Afternoon everyone!

I pray life finds you all well and happy!

     This week was super crazy and filled with a ton of interesting experiences. By the way don't judge my spelling, I am learning Spanish not English.....

     Anyways... if I could pick a week that I had really bizarre happenings this one would be it. 

     The saying "there is a first time for everything" has probably been the theme of the week. Tuesday was the day that odd things started showing up. I went on exchanges with the sister training leaders here. They are English and that was  really weird to teach English because literally in Denver it is all Spanish!
 

     So we went to visit someone and it made my life to be in her house. There are so many things that I held that would give my mother a heart-attack! Sorry mom...you can skip this section if you want..

So she has like 9 snakes! Crazy right?! And then she has a ton of mice and a couple guinea pigs and a ton of fish. We held the guinea pig and then a couple of the mice. A baby one nibbled on my finger...good thing that her teeth weren't sharp! She was going to let us hold the snakes but then realized that they hadn't been fed and would smell the mice...good call!
 

     We had a really great lesson with her and it was a testimony that studying the scriptures is a good thing. Especially scripture mastery.. thank you Sister Steel and Sister Mason!!!!
 

     Afterwards we went to contact a referral and on the way stopped to talk to a woman and her kids. Turns out they didn't speak English so I flew solo but it worked out and she wants to learn more. Yay! Then the last crazy experience of the day was when we went to visit one of their investigators. He is only a couple years older than us and is going to school. We go into his house for the appointment and we realize that he has so many hookahs in his apartment. Aside from Alice in Wonderland I have never seen one in real life and it was slightly exciting in a very odd way. In the corner he had one that is only a few inches shorter than me...party time?! I didn't know that they even made them that big! After talking with him we determined that the word of wisdom is next after we saw the giant jug of moonshine on his desk...my Dukes of Hazzard experiences helped me recognize that. It was an exciting moment for knowing that the Word of Wisdom is of God and saves sooooo much money!
 

     It was a great exchange and I have determined that God calls amazing amazing sisters to be sister training leaders! The two I have known so far are amazing!
 

     We did a ton of tracting this week and it was really great. Especially the people we found and the great lessons we were able to teach. These people are amazing. I love all people...creepy hispanic men are harder to love but I love them none the less.
 

     But we also fulfilled prophecy. So in this apartment complex we are tracting there is a stairway access to the roof of a vacant apartment. And like a nerd I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to fulfill a prophecy in the Book of Mormon it is 2 Nephi 27:11 about the Book of Mormon being declared from the rooftops...nerdy? yes. Fulfilling?...yes. I have pictures for proof. It was great.

2 Nephi 27:11

 

     Then we narrowly escaped death many times in the crazy storm! Drivers here are nuts in the snow!
 

     Sunday we spent hours and hours shoveling snow and rediscovering our neighborhood. And we walked to our closest person to teach and it took forever! We couldn't drive in the snow so it was really cold and really snowy. But we learned that "sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven" and those blessings were in the form of tamales. The elders brought us leftovers from their dinner appointment and it was the best!
 

     Missions are great! It is hard everyday but also worth it everyday as well. I love it and am so grateful that I didn't go to Chile as crazy as that sounds. 

 

Have a great week and I love you all!!

Hermana Hansen

Week 9 in CO - Mar 2

Good morning everybody!

This week has reminded me a lot of the Princess Bride. Why...well you will have to read to find out.

There is one part in that movie when Prince Humperdink is telling Wesley how terrible he is and how much he is going to regret doing everything he has done. But Wesley can't say anything because he is hooked up to The Machine. All he can do is look at the guy and await what is going to happen. 

On Monday night we went to visit a couple of investigators and the mother-in-law was there...We started teaching about the Book of Mormon and she stopped us in the middle of explaining who Nephi is. She was like, "No, the Book of Mormon cannot be true because never in my life have I heard the name Nephi"....oh ok my entire life has been a lie....

We kept going and pretty soon she stops me and stares me down and asks me if I was born into the church....yes?...Now is the time when I felt like Wesley. I sat there as she told me how dumb I was to be out here wasting my time for a message that no one would listen to or believe. She told me how ignorant I was because I had never looked for the truth and I couldn't know anything because I hadn't experienced any other form of truth. In that moment The Machine sounded like a better option! Then we got to hear about how she was born and raised Catholic and will forever be Catholic...I'm glad she doesn't have to look for the truth that she was born into....all I could do was bear testimony. That's all any of us could do. But we left and invited her to try it out and see for herself. Fingers crossed. Maybe we will tie her up next time like Wesley did to Humperdink...that will be interesting....

The rest of the week has been more like the Fire Swamp. The quick sand part has been snow...soooo much snow and ice and cold and more snow. 

It seems like every time we saw any headway we got attacked by a million ROUS's at one time. There were a couple days when we got dropped by almost every single one of our investigators. Our record was 6 in one hour. All of them were different places. It was great...NOT! No one would come to the door and if they did they looked at us and slammed it in our faces. 

But on the bright side yesterday we got out of the Swamp! And it was great. We found a couple of families and some really awesome people and it turned out okay.

I learned this week that praying for faith, patience, and humility is not a good combination! I suggest one at a time. But God answers prayers and gave us a week to help us develop all three. Now it has been so much less chaotic! Like Augustus Waters says, "I'm on a roller-coaster that only goes up my friend."

​"Oh look, I've been impaled"  Sorry but the opportunity came and I took it.

 

I hope you are all doing great! I love you all! Until next week,

Our District

Hermana Kylie D. Hansen

Week 11 in CO - Mar 16

Good day all!!

 

     I learned a very powerful lesson this week. "Beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder" just kidding. That was just a really clever sign we saw. But in all seriousness someone has the gift of witty sign making in the city of Denver. A homeless man we saw this week was holding up a sign that said, "I bet you can't hit me with a cheeseburger" Pure genius. And another was on the front of a bingo place, "Support Bingo. Keep Grandma off the streets" It was great.

     This week resembled a roller-coaster. Monday afternoon our investigator, Grace, made us come get our nails done. Which would have been perfectly fine if she stayed with just blue. But then she pulled out pink and rhinestones.....no. Just no. But I kept them on for about a total of 3 days so it is a record! Just ask my mom...That night we taught some people and then went back to teach Grace and Luis about the Book of Mormon and it was a sick lesson! Then chaos started and our stress levels skyrocketed!

 

     Not much happened until Wednesday when we went back to teach someone we found during exchanges. We got done teaching and she was like "this sounds really familiar I think I have met with missionaries before..." Score!! She is golden! Thursday we had a great day! And tied it up with a Law of Chastity lesson with Grace and Luis! And they said they would keep it!!! They are the best!!!! Friday we had a bomb lesson with our investigator Lucero and she basically taught us the lesson so it was great! I have determined that one of the only reasons Hispanic men answer our questions most of the times this week are because they like my eyes....then they avoid us every time we try to come back...I want brown contacts........

 

     Saturday was ridiculously exhausting. One woman we teach had her entire life fall apart and it was the most stressful thing of my entire life! We had a couple of BOMB lessons with a couple people so that was fun but exhausting. 

 

     Sunday was really really stressful. Luis said he was coming to church but he never texted us or showed up and Grace didn't know where he was and he like disappeared and we were freaking out about that and about a few other people who's lives had turned upside down and then he texted us and all was well. We went to see them and they agreed to live the Word of Wisdom! They are my favorites!

 

     This week helped me to see that the Lord is in every detail of our lives and knows what is best. He sends us help when we need it. One of our recent converts was telling us a story of this man who had so much faith and was convinced that God would save him. So this flood came and he refused 3 times to get help from the Coast Guard and others. He knew God would save him so when he died he was really confused. They were talking about what happened and the man was like, "I had so much faith that you would save me. Why didn't you?" And God was like, "I tried 3 times but you wouldn't take the help."

 

     Sometimes we don't recognize the help that He sends us until it is too late. Hopefully we can all do better with that because He sends us the help we need all the time and a lot of the time He sends it in the form of other people and I know for a fact that this is true. 

My two favorite people ever! Grace and Luis!

     I love you all!

 

     Have a great week!

 

Love,

Hermana Hansen

Week 14 in CO - Apr 6

Hello everyone!

     This week was absolutely crazy! Just like every week...

 

     Monday was great! We had some super great lessons and put our investigator Stella on date for May and she is totally down for it! Now we just have to put her down in the water....She is amazing! I love her a lot! Tuesday we got to teach Luis so it was a great day. Whenever he doesn't text back we joke about whether or not he died. But I learned that I will never do that ever again because he got in a really bad car accident on Monday. Someone hit him from the side and he smashed into the guard rail and flipped his car 3 times. The person that hit him drove away and left him hanging upside down, held in by only his seat belt. Thank goodness Heavenly Father was watching out for him! Some lady saw the whole thing and pulled him out. Now he just has a few scrapes, broken rib, and hemorrhaging in his brain...God is real! He is planning on getting baptized this weekend but we might move it so he has some time to heal. Wednesday was a great day! We went to the temple and it is literally the best way to start a day! Then we had our district meeting and taught some great people. One of which was Lucero and she invited a friend over to hear about the church. What an amazing missionary! And she isn't even a member yet! As always we tried to see so many people but no one was home so we went to go visit Grace. She is doing great! We saw Stella again and it is so sad to see people you love hurting and she was hurting badly but doing much better now! She has a job and is progressing more and more everyday!

 

     Thursday we had our Zone meeting which was super awesome! We are now starting to sing in lessons before we start teaching...I feel like Chad in High School Musical...um I don't sing...but I guess we do now! Most of the rest of the weekend was really insane! We ran around trying to find people for their appointments but no one was ever home! Saturday made it okay though because of Conference!!!!! It answered questions I didn't even know I had! And like always Elder Holland gave the best talk!..Just kidding they were all amazing! Especially the ones in Spanish which I can now understand! I loved Conference so much! It was exactly what I needed and so many others. I am so grateful for a living prophet who tells us what the Lord wants us each individually to hear. I know that as we heed their words, the crazy things in this world will be easier to handle.

Easter Sunday!

 

This is Stella! One of my favorite people ever!

 

 

Love,

Hermana Hansen

Week 16 in CO - Apr 20

Good morning everyone!

     This week has been a roller-coaster of emotion! I have determined that the talk by Hugh B. Brown about the currant bush will be the theme of my mission. This week we saw it happen in the lives of the amazing people we teach, especially Luis.

 

     Due to some legal issues he can't get baptized yet and it was literally the most crushing phone call we have ever had to make. He is so ready and loves the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and knows it is true and he can't join the church yet. That was a currant bush moment to the max. He had been doing everything he was supposed to and doing do much better and feeling so much better and now he can't take that step yet. But Heavenly Father has a very special plan for that young man and now he gets the chance to learn all he can and be 100% solid before he enters into the waters of baptism. And he is still as amazing as ever!

 

     Grace moved out of our mission so we can't teach her anymore but she has been reading and praying and it is so hard. We went to their apartment complex during the week and randomly we went to talk to a group of men and it just happened to be Luis' dad who just got here from visiting in Mexico like 5 days before we found him. It was so amazing to be able to testify to him about how much Luis has changed and how he could have the same change in his life. With God there are no coincidences. 

 

     Stella is doing great! We went over to see her this week and she prayed after the lesson. She plead to her Father in Heaven that everything can work out so she can be baptized and get the Holy Ghost. It was such a powerful witness that we don't do anything as missionaries. All we are here for is to teach them the information and how they can do it on their own because the Spirit is the real teacher.

So funny story for the week...we were doing service at the Action Center and they had Hermana Smock and I paint a set of table and chairs for kids. So..I was leaning on my side to get the other side and my wrist and elbow gave out and I smacked my face on the table top and got a bloody nose...We were in the bathroom FOREVER trying to get it to stop. Thank goodness that it was near closing and no one saw! I got to go clean up the murder scene after we got it stopped....not the most graceful I have ever been....But Hermana Smock got a kick out of it so that is all that matters.

 

     One of our members asked one of her friends if she wanted to take the lessons and she said yes! So the member invited us over for Family Home Evening. The amount of miracles that came out of that lesson are crazy! So this family has been pretty less active so having FHE is a BIG deal! Active families struggle with it! It was really great and Ivancito (little Ivan) said the prayer at the end..which doesn't happen. It cracked me up! He started, "Nuestro Padre Celestial...is everyone's eyes closed?..." I love little kids! They are the best! And now that I can understand the word that are coming out of their mouths it is even better.

 

     So after FHE, we got a return appointment with the friend and she said she wanted her whole family to be there to listen to us! So we went back on Saturday and they were all sitting in the living room waiting for us. Um that NEVER happens! There is a reason that it is its own point in Preach My Gospel to invite the whole family in to hear the lesson....they stole our job......

 

     So I have a challenge for all of you! Hermana Smock has a goal to give 50 copies of the Book of Mormon before she goes home at the end of the transfer. Which is so awesome even though we have like 10 left out of all the ones we had. But I have really grown in my appreciation of the Book of Mormon. I am starting it my 3rd time since I have been out here and there is no doubt in my mind or heart that it is true. And this week as we have shared it with everyone I have seen how much I know that it is the Word of God. So I want to challenge each one of you to share the Book of Mormon with someone but also to get a paperback copy of the Book of Mormon and start from the beginning and mark every single reference to Jesus Christ. Our mission president has us do it in our first transfer and it helped me see just how much it testifies of Christ. So, will you do it? If you will, you can send me an email that you accept it...please :) But I promise that it will bless you lives more than you can imagine. We have to read it in 42 days the first time but you don't have to if you don't want to.

 

     The longer I am out here, the more I know that the Church is true and following Jesus Christ is really the only smart thing to. It is the only way to true and lasting happiness even though the world may say differently. I used to make fun of people who quoted Church movies and scriptures in normal conversation... but now it's me. I have seen both sides; people who follow Christ and are blessed and those who don't and wonder why life is so hard and heartache so evident. I have seen some of the most broken families and individuals healed by the name of the Man I am privileged to wear every day. This decision to serve has changed me forever. I am not the same person I was when I left Providence, RI almost 6 months ago and I am more grateful for that than I would ever be able to express. And it is because Jesus Christ lives and He is our Savior. He is also our perfect older Brother and Friend.

 

     If you haven't seen the Easter video the Church did please go watch it. helives.mormon.org

 

I love you all!! And I hope you have a great week!

Hermana Hansen

Week 15 in CO - Apr 13

Good morning everyone!

     This week has been soooooo long! And I couldn't be more grateful! 

 

     Monday we went to go get Luis some stuff for his baptism on the 12th and it was so great! We got Cafe Rio for dinner. When I had Cafe Rio my first day in the mission, I thought that the hottest sauce they had was like liquid fire but now its got nothin on Picante! Or Tapatillo! Or basically anything we consume on a regular basis...

 

     We got to see our investigator Stella and she is doing so well! We saw her a lot this week and every day we could see how much she is changing as she prepares for her baptism on the 3rd. 

Another miracle that happened this week was that we found a youngish girl and her mom. They were literally the last door we knocked on at an apartment complex and they are so ridiculously prepared that it blows my mind. We went to see the girl on Saturday and brought a member and after the lesson she came to church with that family on Sunday!! It was one of the happiest days ever! And she is reading the Book of Mormon and  she is just amazing! 

 

     As hard as tracting is sometimes, I know that it is one of the greatest blessings that we have been given as missionaries. Through tracting and knocking every door possible, we have been able to find amazing people like Yaritza and Luis.

 

     This week was also kind of sad because a lot of people that we had been teaching dropped us but then we were able to find so many people that the Lord has been preparing. As a mission we have been working on member present lessons and this week we saw the fruits of trying to get members at our lessons. We also have been trying to focus on referencias from members and this week we received a ton of them! And one of them is now preparing for baptism. It is through things like this that we know that Heavenly Father is in the Work. That the Lord really is preparing people and ways to find them. 

 

     I'm sorry that this one is so short but we don't have very much time today. 

 

     Love all of you!!

 

     Have a great week!

 

Love,

Hermana Hansen