I didn't realize how many of y'all would get married so quick. Holy hot dang!

Date: 11-13-2017
Companion: Hermana Judkins
Area: Vancouver East Stake, Fairway Village Ward

This week in the life of Sister Hansen

WE WENT ON EXCHANGES AND I GOT TO GO BACK TO WALNUT GROVE. #HolyLand

Facebook: amazing tool, but holy cow everyone's profile pictures. Y'all and your weddings. Someone tell me when Jenna, Joely, Kaylee, Mitchell, or Jaden gets married. Someone else tell Jeremy I say congrats. Lol.

This week i had a couple of really good studies.

1. Jacob 5. I know I know. Some people look at this like the best chapter in the world and some look at it like it's the worst. But holy hot dang it definitely shows us how much Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father love us, and what we can do in order to receive JOY!!!! Long story short, the mast of the vineyard (Jesus Christ) says 8 times something along the lines of "it grieveth me that I should lose these trees" (us/the children of God, being the trees). 8 times!!!! Throughout the chapter. They truly love us so much and they want all of us to return to them. Then the master goes to work in the vineyard with his servants. He is working so hard to make sure that His trees don't produce bad fruit! He wants all of our success! And our happiness! And he's working right along side us to make sure that we have that success and happiness! And he invites his servants to work with him, in which he promises them that if they work diligently that they will have joy in all the fruit that is produced. I know that when we work hard we can truly enjoy the fruits of our labor, and God will give us many fruits.

2. John 3:16-17. Being on a mission and hearing lots of people's thoughts on who Jesus Christ is actually makes me kind of sad because there is such a misconception about who He is and what His purpose on the earth is. But Jesus Christ did not come to the earth to just preach to people. To condemn them. To tell them to shape up and fix themselves. Jesus Christ came to this earth to take on the sins of the world. To take on everything we have felt. To make sure that we knew God loved us, and that there will always be a way that we can return to God if we just choose to follow Jesus Christ. He made it so we could over come spiritual and physical death. He preached to us while He was here. But he did so much more than just read/produce scripture. HE GAVE US JOY!!!!!

3. The last thing I learned hit me pretty hard, and i definitely needed it. I read a talk and i have absolutely no idea who wrote it or where it came from but it talks about faith. The thing that stuck out to me was getting ride of doubt and having faith in what the Lord might be putting us through at the moment. Laman and Lemuel would begin to complain and murmur because of all the trials that they went through, yet Nephi went through all the same things without complaining. It was because Nephi had so much faith in the Lord that His willingness to do the things the Lord commanded didn't depend on miracles, or rewards for his previous works. He sat down and went to work no matter what was happening. ALL BECAUSE HE HAD TRUMENDOUS FAITH IN OUR LORD AND REDEEMER JESUS CHRIST!!! It made me think "do I have faith in Jesus Christ? Or the miracles? Am I only willing to do something if I see miracles for doing it?" That's not why we're here on the earth right now. We're not here to see miracles and refuse to do anything until we see them. We're here on this earth to prove to Jesus Christ that we have enough faith in Him that we'll follow Him and His commandments whether we see miracles or not.

This is definitely something that I've struggled with. Sometimes I feel as though when I don't see the miracles that whatever it is that I'm doing, isn't actually worth doing. But as I read this talk I felt the spirit and I know that it's true. That if we follow Jesus Christs regardless of the miracles, or lack thereof, that Jesus Christ will be so happy because of what we are doing, and it will truly be the right thing to do, and whether we see them in this life, or the next, I know we will see them.

I know that Jesus Christ lives and loves each and every one of us. I know that He has asked us to do one simple thing and that is to follow Him. I know that as we do, no matter what happens, that He will make everything worth it in the end. Thank you all so much for everything that you do! I appreciate your testimonies and your prayers!❤

☀️FIND JOY☀️

- Sister Emma Hansen

1 & 2. The only difference between 7 months ago and now is the amount of weight we've both gained.(':
3. ✌😚 when in doubt peace and pout
4. Thanks Aunt Myrna and Uncle Glen!
5. Gus, I got some pineapples. Don't worry.

All of the Sister Hansens

Date: 11-06-17
Companion: Hermana Judkins
Area: Vancouver East Stake, Fairway Village Ward

Hello hello everyone! All is well here in the Fairway Village ward!

Something I studied this week that I really liked was Mosiah 23 in the Book of Mormon. So good! Please read. Alma and his people are in the wilderness, and they see the lamanite people coming, and they start to get scared, because they don't want conflict and war to happen. Alma tells them all to trust in the Lord, that if they remembered Him, then He would deliver them. Verse 28 says

"Therefore they hushed their fears, and began to cry unto the Lord that he would soften the hearts of the Lamanites, that they would spare them, and their wives and their children."

Then alma and his people deliver themselves up to the Lamanites, and they're taken into bondage, but in the next chapter, God helps strengthen them and makes it so that their burdens are light.

From this we can learn that we must always turn to and trust in the Lord. And even when we do that, hard trials will still come our way, it's hard to accept, but life just won't be perfect. But if we continue to trust in the Lord then he will make our trials lighter and he will deliver us out of them!

Remember to trust in God. Always. Don't give up if you feel like you can't hear him. I promise you he is there!

☀️FIND JOY☀️

- Sister Emma Hansen


1. Two other sister Hansens (': 

2 & 3.  Hermana Judkins & Sister Hansen
4. Pray for all of them. They've all been my companion.

Hermana

Date: 10-23-2017
Companion: Hermana Judkins
Area: Vancouver East Stake, Fairway Village Ward

Heyooooooo!!!!

We had transfers this week! I'm with Hermana Judkins! She was called Spanish speaking. So we actually taught a lesson in Spanish the other day. It was super cool! I could still feel the spirit even though I just sat there smiling and had no idea what was going on. Haha

Something I studied this week that I thought was super cool. When the Savior is able to feed the 5 thousand with 5 loaves and 2 fish. But what I thought was cool was what the disciples did in order for this miracle to happen. I was reading the institute manual while studying this.

1. Jesus Christ gives a commandment that the disciples cannot accomplish. He tells them to feed the 5 thousand! They can't do it. They don't have the means to! 
2. Jesus Christ asks the disciples what is everything that they can do for the situation. 
3. Then He asked them to bring all that they could.
4. They gave Him everything that they had.
5. The Savior took all that they had and performed a miracle with it. 

I LOVE THIS, this is a literally a map of what we can do in order to see miracles in our lives. Sometimes it's really hard because we have to give God everything, and work hard for it, but that's when the miracles come. When we come to Him in sincere desire, give him everything, and then turn it over to him!

☀️FIND JOY☀️

- Sister Emma Hansen

Yes

Date: 10-16-2017
Companion: Sister Townsend
Area: Vancouver East Stake, Fairway Village Ward

Oh hey.

• Did it finally pour this week? 
• Did I get up at 4:50am to go to a waterfall this morning? 
• Did I study 2 Nephi 31-32 This week? 
• Did I find out that God loves each and every one of us? 
• Did I get bit 6 times by a little boy dressed up as captain America? 
• Did I have waffles with sister Schott? 
• Did I almost throw up while biking this week? 
• Am I biking when I'm probably not supposed to because of a concussion? 
• Am I going to the temple tomorrow? 
• Am I praying Meng will want to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? 
• Does my brother need to rethink his haircut? 
• Did I just have to say goodbye to one of my best friends from the mission? 
• Does God bless each and every single one of us, even if sometimes we can't see those blessings? 
• Do trials come our way? 
• Do we need to stick it out when these trials come and keep believing in God? 

Will you remember to ☀️FIND JOY☀️?

Concussion?

Date: 10-09-2017
Companion: Sister Townsend
Area: Vancouver East Stake, Fairway Village Ward

Hello everyone! I'm still just on a spiritual high from conference last week! Especially after being able to study the talks when they finally came out on lds.org SO GOOD.

Let me share one of my favorite quotes from Elder Hallstrom's talk

"A critical question to ponder is “Where do we place our faith?” Is our faith focused on simply wanting to be relieved of pain and suffering, or is it firmly centered on God the Father and His holy plan and in Jesus the Christ and His Atonement? Faith in the Father and the Son allows us to understand and accept Their will as we prepare for eternity."

Sometimes God's will is different than ours. Sometimes His will is harder than ours. Sometimes we don't understand His will for us. Sometimes we won't know why something has happened to us, or someone we love. But what we can know is that God does have a will for us, and that His plan for us is better than any plan we could even fathom. Your ultimate happy place, is nothing compared to what God has in store for you. And sometimes that's hard to imagine because we might not see it in this life. Because this earth life is the life of learning and growing. But when we endure our trials, and have the faith to know that our trials are part of God's plan for us, we can endure it well and eventually receive our ultimate joy in the celestial kingdom with Him forever!

Some fun things that happened this week:

• Monday: I got a concussion. So no driving or biking for meeeeee 
• Tuesday: we had a lesson with an former pastor and we were able to teach him about the Book of Mormon and how it's another testament. He said he would read it. His name is Roger. Please pray for him! 
• Wednesday: we had dinner with the Potts family and heard some legit quotes "if you live in the past then you have issues, and then you need tissues" (I cry from laughing so hard every time we're there). 
• Thursday: we worked at a compost farm. Later that night we had a BOMB lesson with Meng and she's praying about what church to be baptized into. Please please please pray for her, that as she reads the Book of Mormon she will know this is Christ's restored church on the earth. 
• Friday: we made 48 cupcakes for an elder whose birthday was the next day 
• Saturday: we had a sisters breakfast and took some fun pictures while there 
• Sunday: we dropped some cookies off with Sister Schott and I just love her so much. I'm grateful for her and all she does for us. 

Remember to ☀️FIND JOY☀️

-Sister Emma Hansen

1. Monday
2. Lake Village Homies aka. The district
3. Cupcakes
4. Sisters Breakfast
5. Sister Schott is one of my favorite people, I love her too much

Oh no, October 1st and the scary stuff happens.

Date: 10-02-2017
Companion: Sister Townsend
Area: Vancouver East Stake, Fairway Village Ward

Holy. Cow. That's all I can say right now.

I FLIPPIN LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE.

Honestly, I really needed this conference in my life. Please please please, I'm begging you, if you didn't watch it, go back and watch it now.

Elder Hallstrom gave a great talk that put a lot in perspective for me. What I got out of it was to endure. We hear that all the time, but he said it in a different way that I'd never heard before. Lots of times when I go through a trial, all I can think is "how can I fix this? How can I go back to being comfortable?" But elder Hallstrom talked about having the faith to not be comfortable physically all the time, because maybe our spirits need more healing. It was just so good. It changed so much for me. I've been going through all of my trials, knowing I could learn something from them, but expecting to be comfortable after them. But he challenged us to have the faith to go through life doing God's will. And sometimes that means being uncomfortable physically.

Have the faith to be physically uncomfortable because you know it will help you spiritually.

SO GOOD.

Elder Holland's talk was also amazing. A song that I find myself singing a lot is "I'm trying to be like Jesus" but I'm also over critical and too hard on myself. Elder Holland talks about how if were trying to be like Jesus we would not make ourselves feel this week. Because Jesus Christ would never make someone feel this way. So why should we do it to ourselves. SO EMPOWRING I LOVE IT.

We scared the heck out of sister Adams and Burton last night because the stls let us in through their window so the other sisters has no idea we were in the apartment and holy cow.
"Oh no. October 1st and the scary stuff happens" - sister Adams when she thought her apartment was haunted.

This week has been a wild one. Basically sister Townsend has been a little under the weather and by that I mean she's on her deathbed. So we've been trying to take it easy while still doing work. But now I'm starting to get sick. I can't hear out of my left ear and my throat is on fire, my head has also exploded. Updates to come next week.

We were able to find a new investigator named Bailey. She wasn't raised with religion in her life. But she said we could come back and I'm excited to teach her. Please pray for her that she will be there and will be willing to listen to the message of the restored gospel. That Jesus Christ lives. That we have prophets on the earth today. That God loves us, and still speaks with us. That He is a God of miracles.

Remember to

☀️FIND JOY☀️

-Sister Emma Hansen

1. There's another sister Hansen in the mission. She's legit.
2. Sister miles went to my high school. Anyone know Morgan?
3. Had dinner with sister Schott. I love her too much
4. <3

"Hashtag" PoundItForJesus

Date: 09-25-2017
Companion: Sister Townsend
Area: Vancouver East Stake, Fairway Village Ward

Hello hello everyone! Honestly not much to report on this week!

EXCEPT THE WOMEN'S CONFERENCE. HOLY. DANG. COW. So good. If you didn't get a chance to watch it, please go to www.lds.org - womensconference and go watch it. So good.

In zone conference this week: "Pound it for Jesus"

I've been thinking a lot this week about growing and changing. An elder have his departing testimony and said that our testimonies are like muscles. And when a muscles grows, it has to be broken down first. And that's what has to happen to us.

This is Sometimes really hard to accept and I think when we actually recognize it, it only gets harder. So I don't have anything profound. But just keep going. Don't lose sight of God. Always turn to Him. Even when it seems like he's not there. He always is. And it might be hard to see him, but that doesn't mean you turn away from him. If you're drowning and seeking so desperately for air, it doesn't mean you just turn and breathe in water just because you can't get the air. You fight for it. And you fight for it until you get it again and you can breathe.

I'm so excited for general conference this weekend. If you don't know what general conference is, then reply to someone one this list, and they'll let you know.

I know we have prophets and apostles on the earth today who help guide us to our father in Heaven and tell us where God wants us to be. When listening to conference write down a question. And don't write down exactly what the person speaking says. Write down what God tells you in your heart.

I love you all so much! Remember to

☀️FIND JOY☀️
- Sister Emma Hansen

1. Sister Hansen & Sydney Staker (Emma's trainer)
2. & 3. Sister Hansen & Sister Townsend