Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Hermana Juliet Hansen - The work is marching forward

Hello all,
 
First off, I wish you (Mom and Dad) the best of luck with all of the concerts that you have coming up this week. I'm sure they will be fantastic.
I'm glad to hear that you all enjoyed your visit with Grandma Hansen. I'm sure she really enjoyed the visit too. 
Thanksgiving as a missionary is different. We basically do everything that we would on a normal day, tract, teach, etc. BUT we get fed a lot. We had two dinner appointments that day (the elders had 3) and they were back to back. One at 5 and one at 6. Had they been spaced out a little bit more it would have been okay but because they were one right after the other it was so hard. (..........) So many things, it's hard for me to remember them all. Anyway, by the time we were finished at the second meal I was so full that when I laughed it hurt so bad. Delicious food but oh man it was a lot.
 
Okay story of the week. We have a car but each month we are only allotted a certain amount of miles that we can drive. Well, for various reasons by last Friday we were down to about 100 miles left that we could use for the month. So we've been doing a lot of walking recently. From the experiences we had on Saturday I know that the Lord has really been blessing us for our willingness to try to be obedient with the number of miles and still wanting to work hard. 
Saturday we decide to look for some of the less actives that live really close by our house. We had a list of about 10. If you were to look at the list alone you would think that we had an awful day because only one of the people on the list was actually at home. But things happened as we were walking that only could have happened because we weren't using the car. 
We randomly ran into an old investigator that we had previously tried to look for as we were walking on the main road. We now have an appointment to teach him. 
We got lost in an upscale trailer park for like an hour before we found the house that we were looking for. The family that we were looking for wasn't at home but as we were headed out of the area we met a wonderful man, ........, who is so open to the Gospel and is willing to listen to the missionaries. We had to refer him to the English missionaries but I really hope that good things come out of that even though we can't teach him. 
Then as we were searching for the last name on our list right before we needed to leave for our dinner appointment we met two men, a father and his son, as they were walking home who actually lived in Orem Utah for a while, of all places. The son let us come into his home and meet his family and they are interested in learning more about what we believe. And surprisingly his wife had met with the missionaries before when she was really young. We have an appointment with them as well this week. 
I know that all of these people we met were not really because of us but because we were willing to be tools in the Lords hands and really the Lord put these people in our path. I know that He can do this for any one not just missionaries. Maybe all we need to do is shake up our routine a little bit (like walking instead of driving everywhere).
 
I love you all and know that you are in my prayers always,
 
Hermana Hansen
 
"We are all enlisted" -Jeffrey R. Holland (love this talk A LOT!!)

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Hermana Juliet Hansen - First Week in the Field

Hello All from lovely California,
 
I'm really enjoying the field. At first it was a rough transition from the MTC but now I feel like I have this under my belt and understand better how being in the field works. There is a saying in the MTC that if you can make it to Sunday you'll be okay. Well, I believe that this statement applies to the field as well. If we can make it to Sunday then we can make it the rest of the week.
 
So my first companion is Hermana White. She is awesome. She is from Texas and has been out in the field for 10 months. She has been so helpful as I've been transitioning into the field. I've already learned a lot from her and I'm excited to work with her for the next 12 weeks.
 
Okay so I have a pretty amazing story. Thursday after we had our training with the President, Sister White and I returned to the apartment to study for a little bit and it wasn't even 10 minutes in when I felt really strongly that we should go out and tract. I tried to ignore it but it was like I could not focus on anything else. My mind was like, "TRACT!, TRACT!, TRACT!". So I turned to Sister White and said to her "So this is weird but I really feel like we should go tract right now." She asked if I knew where and I had no idea all I knew was that we needed to go out and tract. So we got in the car and drove. We didn't know where we needed to go but eventually we got to this street and we both felt like we needed to turn there. So we did. We knocked doors and initially didn't have much success but then we got to the fourth door. Before this all of the people pretty much slammed the door in our faces but when we got to this door the lady actually listened to what we had to say. Sister White shared a wonderful message about eternal families and then we asked if we could come in and share a short message. And she let us in the house. We taught her about prayer and learned some more about her and her family. She seemed really receptive. At the end of the lesson we asked if we could come back and teach some more and she said we could. Saturday we went back and taught a little more about prayer (for the benefit of her daughter) and about the apostasy. And we are going back tonight to teach again. I love this family. The mom's name is (.....)  and we are also teaching her son, daughter, and her daughter's best friend. They are a special family. There is such a light in the daughter and her friend when we are with them. You can tell that life has not been easy but they are so excited to learn. Tonight we are going to teach them again but this time the Dad is going to be there and hopefully his heart is as open as everyone else. I can't wait to see how everything goes with this family. I know that God really did lead us to them and I really feel like they have been prepared to hear the Gospel. If we are willing to heed the promptings of the spirit we can be lead to great things.
 
I'm so excited for Thanksgiving this week. Mainly because it is the opportunity we have to give thanks for everything that we have in this life. I have a gratitude notebook and in it I have a list of over 100 things that I'm grateful for. I would encourage you all to make a list of your own. Some of the things that I'm grateful for this year are:
- my family
- the opportunity to be a missionary
- fall colors
- Hispanic food (it is so amazing here!!)
 
What are you thankful for??
 
Love you all so much.
 
Til next week,
 
Hermana Juliet Hansen
 
p.s. I tried this Peruvian drink made out of purple corn. It is delicious. Whoever knew that corn juice could taste like bubble gum.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Hermana Juliet Hansen - Last Preparation Day in the MTC

Hello all,
 
So before I forget here are my travel plans for next Wednesday when I head to the field.
 
I am going to be flying on Delta Air Lines. It leaves Salt Lake airport at 8:39 am and gets to the Burbank, CA airport at 9:42 am. I have to leave the MTC at 5 am and I'll probably arrive at the airport at or a little after 6 am. We are allowed to call home and talk to our families for about 30 minutes once we are through security at the airport. (.......................)

This week was for the most part a really great week.
 
Last week I forgot to tell you about the experience I had hosting some of the new missionaries on Wednesday. But that was probably a good thing because I got to host again this week too. Hosting is super fun. You have to be in your second to last week or last week of your time at the MTC and then you get sent a letter in the mail saying that your district has been selected to host the new missionaries. Some of my friends here had really hilarious experiences when they hosted (my friend Elder B, his first missionary got lost, and because of that they changed how hosting is done). I assume they eventually found that missionary. Unfortunately, well I guess fortunately, I had really normal experiences as a host. All of the sisters that I hosted were really excited to be here, they weren't too overwhelmed with all the information, weren't showing any obvious signs of being homesick or anything. Last week I hosted a sister going to Arizona and a sister going to Portugal. This week I hosted another sister going to Arizona and a sister going to Oklahoma. All of them seemed liked really sweet sisters with really strong testimonies. My host was really amazing when I got to the MTC so I hope I was as helpful for these sisters as she was for me.
 
So Mom and Dad, a couple of nights ago I had an experience where I became even more grateful for the kind of people you are and how supportive you are of all of your children. Basically, one of my roommates was going through a hard time and she was expressing how unsupportive her family is and it made me realize that maybe I never express how grateful I am for you enough. So thank you a billion times over for all that you do. You are amazing parents and great examples and I wouldn't be who I am without you.
 
Okay, so spiritual experience. We have workshops every Wednesday evening and generally they are just okay but the past two weeks have been pretty awesome. This week we had a workshop on the restoration and how it relates to our purpose as missionaries (invite others to come unto Christ and receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end). Well at one point in the lesson the teacher asked us to write down how the restoration had impacted your life. So I thought about it and I came to the realization that basically my entire life is heavily impacted by the restoration of the Gospel. Had there not been a restoration my parents probably never would have met. I would not be on a mission right now. Probably wouldn't have gone to BYU. And if none of those things hadn't have happened I wouldn't have met a lot of the people that are really dear to me. It is a testament that God really does know what every person needs in their life and so orchestrates things in a way that everything works out as it should. And everything I know and have experienced can basically be traced back to the restoration of the gospel. So my question for you to ponder is, how has the restoration fo the gospel impacted your life.
 
I love you all so much and I can't wait to talk to you all next week.
 
Love,
 
Hermana Hansen 

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Hermana Juliet Hansen - And the countdown begins .... 13 days!

Hello all,
 
I don't have a lot of time because of some computer problems that ate away at my time but here are a few tidbits.
 
This week was pretty awesome.
 
Sunday we had the opportunity to hear from Elaine S. Dalton during Relief Society. She is an amazing woman and I learned that she is actually really competitive and likes to run a lot with her family. Well, she shared with us an experience she had while running with her husband. She said that she normally doesn't run with him because he is a lot faster than she is and she doesn't like to lose to him. Well one day they were running and they get to this hill and she says to herself, "I am good on hills. He is not...I can beat him up this hill" She said that she was doing well for a little while and then all of a sudden at about halfway he shoots right past her. She wasn't too happy about that so she yelled to her husband, "Honey, I'm going to turn around now and wait for you in the car." Her husband then turns around, runs back, grabs her hand, and says, "Don't you know you never make the decision to turn around in the middle of a hill?" And they finished running the hill together. She then said that at the top of the hill she was able to witness one of the most beautiful sunrises she has ever seen. She told us that this is like life. When we are in the middle of a trial we should never decide to turn around at that point. If we push forward and continue to the end we will be so richly rewarded. I was so amazed by her words and am really grateful that she shared that experience. I know that if we push through our trials we will ultimately come out better people in the end and the Lord will bless us for our efforts.
 
Monday we had the opportunity to eat lunch with the MTC president, President Brown. Whenever he eats lunch with a district he always quizzes them on their knowledge of the scriptures, specifically the Book of Mormon. Well what often happens is that the districts feel like they've been out through the ringer BUT I can honestly tell you that we managed to come out of that lunch having impressed President Brown with our scriptural knowledge. He asked us to tell him our favorite part of the Book of Mormon, 10 scriptures that are about the Atonement, and the 3 prophets that talk about the second spiritual death. The elders in my district were amazing in their knowledge of the scriptures. And I am determined that one day I will be as knowledgeable about the scriptures as President Brown.
 
I love you all,
 
Hermana Hansen