Eggcelent Week

Date: 03-27-2017
Companion: Sister Staker
Area: Vancouver North Stake, Walnut Grove Ward

Hello! So this week was a pretty good week! We did a lot of service, which was really fun because we got to go out and do things and it was just different. It was really nice. 

One good story about the work this week was getting to talk with and investigator named David! So we found him last Saturday and talked about Christ with him for a little bit, but we could smell the alcohol on his breath and we'd asked if we could come back Saturday and he said yes, but we didn't think he would be there, or let us in, or even remember us. Well we went back Saturday, and HE LET US IN. We talked to him and his wife and turns out she's been to utah and has seen the St George temple and has a book about all the temples! It was really awesome! And they said we could come back and teach them the Lessons! It just made me so excited about the rest of my mission! To be able to see the light in more people!

We went on a hike last p-day and it was so much fun! We didn't really go on a hike we kind of just sat by a river, but it was so beautiful so it was awesome. 

Some of the service we did this week was going to this members farm and holding/helping her chickens! It was so funny. She wanted us to hold her chickens to "humanize" them. It was our whole district plus another set of elders and half of us apparently grew up on farms and love chickens, and half of us are apparently TERRIFIED of chickens. So it was extremely hilarious! But then we also helped her clean out her garage. It was a lot of fun. The best part about it though, was that she gave us eggs at the end, and I was holding one single egg, and I went over to elder Williams and said "I'll give you a dollar to eat this egg right now" and he goes "show me the dollar" So I went to our car, and grab a dollar, sister staker shouts "oh let me video it!" And we're standing there, and she made both of us get in the video, and elder Williams is talking to me and all the sudden just SLAMS it on me!!!!! I'm trying to figure out how to send the video of it, so stay tuned. It was hilarious though. 

I have a testimony that God hears us. He doesn't hand us everything in life because salvation isn't easy. Salvation is something we have to work towards. The best thing isn't going to be easy to obtain, the harder life is, the better you are doing. He answers prayers in ways we dont expect. He can tell us solutions, but we have to make sure that we're willing to act, I know he hears your prayers. You are not alone. I love you all so much! I hope you have a fantastic week! 

-Sister Hansen

1. Sister Staker does this thing where she'll just randomly put things on her head. She does it in lessons all the time and it's hilarious so I decided to do it with her too.
2-3. Hike from last week.
4. Us with Sister Tellez on Sister Staker's birthday
5-8. chicken on chicken in chicken
9. Walking
10. Burgerville shakes which are SOOOO good

Transfers?

Date:  03-20-2017
Companion:  Sister Staker
Area:  Vancouver North Stake, Walnut Grove Ward

Hello hello! Imma keep it real short cause I don’t have much to write about. Lol. We have transfers this week, Sister Staker and I get to stay in walnut grove! So that's fun! Not much exciting happened this week. But it’s been a busy week! We took district pictures because it was our last district meeting together. The other day, while Sister Staker and I were tracting we came across this sign in the middle of the tree so we took a picture of it! We have some funny videos but I can't figure out how to send them from my tablet so I can't send any of them. But we went on a hike this morning and it was awesome! It wasn't really a hike, we kind of just stood by this river. Ha lol.

One thing I studied today was 3 Nephi 27:21-22. It talks about doing as Christ has done. I think that means more than being baptized and following his commandments. I think it means having compassion, serving others, saving others, being selfless. Christ gave everything he had and he was crucified, he asked Heavenly Father to take the cup away from him, he didn't want to go through this extremely hard thing. But he did it anyway because he knew it was God’s plan. In verse 22 he says that if we do these things that we will be saved at the last day. Life is hard, but be like Christ and endure it, and in the end everything will be okay. And if it's not okay, then it's not the end!

I love you all so much! Thanks for writing me all of your experiences! Keep sending me your favorite scriptures!

1 and 2. Elders Smith, Dastrup, Grant, Brown, me, and Sister Staker.

3. The sign in the tree.

March Pictures

Pictures texted from sweet families in Walnut Grove Ward:

First Burgerville Shake 03-20-17

Dinner and Sister Staker's birthday celebration with the Tellez Family:  03-20-17

Kestner Family 03-24-17

Durfey Family 03-26-17

#spurit

Date:  03-13-2017
Companion:  Sister Staker
Area:  Vancouver North Stake, Walnut Grove Ward

Hello Everyone! This week was a wild one. 

One thing i want to ask real quick is for everyone to send me their favorite scripture and tell me why! I would love to hear everyones!! 

Exciting news! MICHAEL IS ON DATE. Boooooooom. He is so cool. When we first started teaching him he just said he wanted to be Mormon so bad. He said he didn't know much about our church, but that it was Christ's church. His testimony is so strong. So he said he would be baptized in our last lesson. He's scheduled for April 1st, Ahhh I'm so excited for him. He's awesome and his spirit is so strong. He first picked the date of April 22nd and Christopher, one of the members who knows Micheal, said that was the first day they talked about the gospel 2 years ago, and Michael goes "wow. Spirit." But he said it like spurit, so now that's been our districts saying and hashtag for miracle texts. But its been pretty awesome. I'm so excited for Him! 

One funny story this week, Sister Staker and i were walking to a less active members house. We set up to come back to talk with her again and decided to tract around her house for a little bit. We knock on one door and we hear this really high pitch barking and we look behind us and there's this TINY dog. And we're just like "okay lol". This dog followed us to every house.  It would just go to the porch with us and then wait and then go to the next house. It followed us down the street, around the corner, and down another street! So we decided this dogs name was Elect and was going to lead us to the elect. It followed us to the next house and then we knocked and it took off. But the guy answered and said he was totally interested and let us come back! We look around and the dog was GONE. It was crazy!!!! #miracleseverywhere. It was awesome. 

Oh we had dinner with the lizard again this week. The family kept leaving the table so it was just Sister Staker, me, and the lizard for more than half of the dinner so we taught it about the plan of salvation. It was pretty awesome. We got all the way to the spirit world and resurrection. Also it's on date somehow. So that's awesome. Lol 

I have really funny videos but I can't figure out how to save them to my tablet cause Sister Staker has to send them to me, and it's all really confusing. So just imagine how funny it is. Lol

I love you all! Thanks for all that you do! If anyone has any cool experiences share them with me! I'd love to hear! Thanks for all the letters and packages! I'm super grateful! Love you!

-Sister Hansen

Elect the dog . . . he went on a trio with the Sisters this week

P.S.  For those of us that don't know "missionary" speak - "on date" means someone has set a date for baptism.  

Once a janitor, always a janitor. Am I right #GASquad?

Date: 03-07-2017
Companion: Sister Staker
Area: Vancouver North Stake, Walnut Grove Ward

HELLO FRIENDS AND FAMILY.

This week has been great! We did a lot! Probably the most exciting thing was that we got to go to a CHOIR CONCERT!?!!!! What??? Missionaries at a choir concert!?!!? So during our zone conference our mission president dropped a bomb on us saying we need to go to the youth and talk with them. Go to where they are. "If they're at football games, go to them and talk!" WHAT??? THIS IS UNHEARD OF. So the Walnut Grove Ward does volleyball every Tuesday night and they have a whole bunch of kids that go to it that aren't members and it’s a way for them to come to the church and learn more about it. Well, we've gotten to know them a bit and all of them are in choir. And they had their solo ensemble on Saturday. Michael and Cesar, two of the people we've been teaching are in it as well as like 6 other kids and some of the youth in our ward already. So we asked our zone leaders if we could go and they said to talk to the assistants. The assistants said they had to talk to president about it! TWO DAYS LATER the assistants got back to us and SAID WE COULD GO?!!! It was incredible! They were so amazing! And we got to know them a little more and they were so excited to see us there! They were so excited to meet with us again! It was crazy! It was so good that we could establish that relationship and find some other people who wanted to be taught. 

from Hercules . . . sun dial peddler

Another short story while we were there, a kid named Brandon was there at the concert with his mom, his sister was singing in the choir. He and his is mom come up to Sister Staker and I and say, "Hey sisters look at this!" And it was like that scene on Hercules when that guy is all "hey you wanna buy a sun dial" and opens his coat and there's tons of watches underneath, like a sketch drug deal or something, except Brandon didn't have watches underneath his coat, and you'll never guess what he did have..... A FREAKING LIZARD!!!!! LIZARD NUMBER 7I47TY758484 ON THE MISH. Sister Staker freaked out cause she hates reptiles but it was seriously so funny. I asked why Brandon brought the lizard and he said he didn't know he was actually staying for the choir concert!!!! So he had it for like 5 hours! It was so funny!!! 

So I went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders this week. I was with Sister Twitchell and it was so much fun! She's awesome! It was fun to get to know another missionary and see how they work, to do something different. She gave me some really good advice that helped me learn to listen to spiritual promptings more. It was great and I love her. 

We did a service project this week and we cleaned this woman's bathrooms, and it brought me back to the good old days of being a janitor at Green Acres elementary school and I never realized how much I missed cleaning. Hah lolz I'm the weirdest. Shout out to my GA squad. Sister Staker was laughing cause everything we cleaned I was like "this is my place in life, this is all I know, once a janitor always a janitor!" It was great. Never thought cleaning would be a tender mercy. Lolz. 

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
Fiery Furnace

One of the cool things that I studied this week was Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel chapter 3. When King Nebuchadnezzar makes a statue of himself and wants everyone to worship him. The three of them refuse and are told they will be put in a burning fire. The king asks if they think their God will save them. They say something along the lines of "yes, we believe our God has the power to save us, but we know that if he doesn't it's because he has a reason for it. Whether he keeps us alive or not, we have faith in our God and will not worship anything else." In the end, the three of them are thrown into the fire, and the servants who throw them in the fire are actually killed because of how hot the fire is, but the king sees four figures. The three of them, and the Lord standing with them. The Lord will stand with us through hard times and I admire their faith in Him, knowing he had a plan for them and that even if they weren't kept alive, that God was doing what he was doing for a reason, and it reminded me of Alma 24, when the people know that the Lamanites are coming to war with them, but they don't want to fight because they don't want to sin against God, they bury their weapons. When the Lamanites come, they fall to the earth on their faces and most are killed. But because of their righteousness and their willingness to act on their faith in the Lord, more people from the Lamanites are converted unto the Lord, than righteous people killed. So God didn't save them from their death, but he had a better plan for them. And they had enough faith to trust in Him. So that's something I'm working on, believing in and trusting in God, that he knows what's right. I can pray to him at any time to help me with anything, and sometimes he'll help me, and sometimes I'll crash and burn where I wanted it to be so good, but something better will come along the line. And that better something could either be for me or someone else, that I might not even know about. I want to be able to trust in God whole heartedly. Even if things don't turn out the way I want them to. We need to have faith that what he's doing is better for us, or for someone else. GOD IS SO REAL!! The church is so REAL! The gospel is REAL! Life is good elder! I love love love the gospel!!!!! 

Sorrz I don't have many pictures.

Sister Hansen