Hermana Juliet Hansen - Update

Hello all,

 

This week was a great week. The Lord really provided for us and for the first time in a few weeks we were able to achieve almost all of the goals that we had set at the beginning of the week.

 

So this week a few great things happened.

 

First, I finished the Book of Mormon in English!!!! You know how I told you that one of my goals this year was to read the Book of Mormon in both English and Spanish. Well I accomplished half of that goal already. I started in September when I entered the MTC and I finished January 18th. And I really wanted to take Moroni's promise again so that I could say to my investigators that I have done what they need to do and that I know that I've received my witness. Well the morning I finished I just got on my knees by the couch and I prayed to have that confirming witness that the Book of Mormon is true. It was such a great experience to have because it was like I just felt this overwhelming feeling of love for the Book of Mormon. I felt so much gratitude to have it in my life. And for me that was my reaffirmation that the Book of Mormon is true. And I shared that experience with some of our investigators that same night and I really feel like it helped them know that they will get an answer to their prayer. I've always known that the Book of Mormon is true, I've never doubted that. And know I have this experience that really solidifies my testimony that the Book of Mormon is true.

 

Second, We got two more investigators to commit to baptism. One is a 14 year old boy whose mom and grandparents are members. He was never baptised but his older brother was. Well in December his little sister was blessed and he started to wonder why he was never taught those things. So he went up to his mom and asked what he needed to do to be baptised. We met with him on Friday and we talked about the Book of Mormon and coming to know for himself that all of these things are true. He just seems so excited to learn everything. And if everything goes well with talking to his grandpa, going to church, and praying about the date, he is going to get baptised the 5th of February. 

The other is a man named (.......). He was an investigator a couple of times in the past but he never really progressed because it was next to impossible to find him. Well it's still pretty hard to find him but when we have it's been a miracle. He has such an amazing spirit about him. He has a deep desire to really know for himself if these things are true. He's been reading the Book of Mormon and he already likes what he is reading. I'm so excited for him to continue to progress. Hopefully this week he will pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true and be able to attend church. And if everything goes well for him, he will be baptised February 26th.

 

There were so many other good things that happened but I'm lacking in time to share all those stories. Just know that we are working hard and enjoying ourselves at the same time. Imagine a fashion show at a Relief Society activity of a whole bunch of different hats representing things about Visiting Teaching. Then imagine one of the sisters wearing a huge hat that looked like a rooster and another sister wearing a hat that looked like a beehive. (I wore a leprechaun hat). It was super fun(ny)!

 

Love you all!!

 

Hermana Hansen

Hermana Juliet Hansen - Exchanges!!

My companion and I are in the process of rebuilding our investigator pool. This means that we do a lot of knocking doors and contacting people. Some days it is really hard but I know that soon the Lord will reward us for our labors. We just have to keep working hard and praying every day to be led by the spirit.

 

So the best experience of this week happened during exchanges on Thursday. So last week I told you that we have a baptismal date with our investigator (......). Well that is really tentative and that experience was not nearly as cool as the one on Thursday. 

So thursday I was up in Palmdale with Hermana Stander. One of the lessons that we had was with a girl named (......). She is (..) years old and she lives with her grandparents, her aunt, and like 14 cousins. Her grandparents and aunt are actually members but have not gone to church in about 8 years. Ever since (.......) met the missionaries about 4 weeks ago she had been taking the lessons and going to church all by herself. On Thursday we watched the movie "The Restoration" with her and talked a little bit about the Young Womens program because she went for the first time on Wednesday. After our little discussion we talked about how to be a member we have to be baptised. So we asked her if she would be baptised on the 12th of February. And she said YES!! And she was so excited! It was like she could hardly contain her smile. And I was so excited for her. 

She's not my investigator but it was so exciting to see for the first time someone who is so excited to get baptised and be a member of the church. AND miracle of miracles because of her example her aunt and several of her cousins went to church on Sunday. And now 4 of her cousins are taking the discussons. It's so awesome!

 

And we also had one of our families come to church on Sunday. They missed Sacrament meeting but eventhough they were late they still came for Sunday School and Relief Society. That was so exciting when we saw them there.

 

Anyway, that's about all the time I have for today. But I want to share this scripture with you... Alma 36:26. I love this scripture. Next to it I have written "how to be an effective missionary...have you tasted, seen, and known?" So something to think about is how have you tasted, seen, and known that the gospel is true? And how have you shared that knowledge with others? It's really cool that the scriptures compare gaining a testimony/spiritual experiences to the senses.

 

I hope you enjoy that scripture.

 

I love you all and know that I pray for you always.

 

Till next week,

 

Hermana Hansen

Hermana Juliet Hansen - Awesome conversion story and a baptismal date !

Hi everyone!!

  

This week was a little slow but I can't expect every week to be jam packed. We did a lot of knocking doors and trying to track down less actives and old investigators. I guess you can call it success when you learn that they've moved, then you can redirect your focus a little bit. Though it would be awesome if we could know where they moved to so we could send other missionaries to their homes. Sometimes we get lucky with that.

This week I met a really inspiring lady. Her name is (.......) and she is in her late 60's/early 70's. We met her because she had referred her daughter to us, asking for a blessing. We arrive at her house and her daughter isn't there yet (and neither are the elders) so she starts to tell us about how she came to know the church. 

About 3 years ago, she and her family had just moved into their house in Canyon Country when one Sunday morning she woke up and decided that she needed to go to church. She said that it didn't matter what church, any church would do. So she decided that she would either walk two blocks to the left or two blocks to the right and the first person she met she would ask about where she could find the nearest church. She started walking and she saw this man holding what looked like scriptures, putting stuff in his car. So she went up to him and asked where they were going. They happened to be LDS and his wife said they were going to church and she asked if (........) wanted to join them. She said yes, she would. So the family said they would pick her up in 15 minutes. She went home to change (she saw the wife wearing a skirt). She had no idea where to find a skirt (since they had just moved) but miraculously there happened to be one sitting on the back of a chair. The family picked her up. She went to church, not knowing much English, but happy to go anyway. She enjoyed what she saw and felt. She got baptised and since then hasn't missed a single Sunday. And because of her example her granddaughter was baptised just a short while ago.

She is such a great example to me of the converting power of the Holy Ghost. She didn't understand much English and to this day she only understands about 75% of what is said but she felt that what was being said was true and thus wanted to be a part of it. Her story, to me, is one of those amazing conversion stories that you don't hear very often. I'm grateful to have met her and hopefully I'll get to see her again in the future.

In other news... Hermana White and I have a tentative baptismal date set for one of our investigators, (.......), for the 12th of February. She's a great lady and we're excited that she wants to be baptised. I'll have to tell you more about her when I have more time because I don't have time (now) to tell you sufficiently about her.

Oh and we are doing exchanges this week. On Thursday I get to go up to Palmdale. I'm super excited. I'll let you know how it goes.

Have a terrific week.

Love you all,

Hermana Hansen

Hermana Juliet Hansen - Happy 2012

(I have been a tardy mom regarding posting J's e-mail for this week. My apologies for that.)

Happy New Year all,

 

This week was by far so much better for missionary work than the week before Christmas. Investigators were more willing to receive us. When we knocked doors people weren't busy with family visits. Granted New Year's eve was hard to contact people but for the most part we had success.

 

So this week I started something new with my reading of the scriptures in English. I decided that I'm going to underline every time the scriptures mention a part of the gospel of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end). I've assigned each topic a specific color. I've really enjoyed doing this. It's kind of been like a treasure hunt. I've found that after I started doing that every morning I'd wake up and I couldn't wait to read some more of the Book of Mormon and every night before I go to bed I want to read some more, basically because I want to continue to find times when these things are mentioned. It's been amazing how quickly the pages go by as I'm really focused on the words so I don't miss an instance. Before I started underlining these words I'd read the scriptures in English and I'd only feel like I could read one or two chapters at a time but now I have this immense desire to keep reading and reading. Sometimes it's hard to stop.

But here's what I've found so far...from Alma 1- 36 (granted I skimmed the first 10 chapters of Alma because I had already read them before I started underlining)

Faith...54 times

Repentance...82 times

Baptism...16 times

Gift of the Holy Ghost... 4 times

Endure to the End... 3 times

 

I've learned something from how many times repentance is mentioned in these chapters. This is mainly when Alma and the sons of Mosiah are out doing missionary work. And there is a scripture that talks about how a missionary is to "cry nothing but repentance unto this generation". Well by underlining these words I've come to see just how much Alma, Ammon, etc. are truly fulfilling their purpose as missionaries. That's pretty much all they did, was bring people to repentance. Awesome! This also shows me just how important repentance is to the Lord. Really seeing how much it is mentioned in the scriptures is helping remind me that I need to repent every day and so I've become a lot better about doing that.

 

Anyway, that was probably the most interesting/significant thing that happened to me this week. I got creative with my scripture study. So my question for the week is... What can you do to be more creative with your scripture study? I know that studying the scriptures in a slightly different way has really helped me have a greater desire to read every day and I find my study a lot more enjoyable.

Have fun with your scripture study this week!!

 

Also, tonight we are going to find out if our investigator (......)  got a response to his prayer about being baptised on the 15th. Pray for us that he'll commit to that date. I'll let you know how it goes in next weeks email.

 

Love you all,

 

Hermana Hansen

 

p.s. Don't forget those hand written letters :) Oh and I'm also asking people to share with me their favorite scriptures. So what's yours?