Hermana Juliet Hansen - I Love Life

Hello all,

 

So my first week with my new companion has been awesome. Granted we are working really hard to mesh our teaching styles because we are both very strong personalities but we both really want to make it work and we've seen much success because of how hard we are working together. We are currently in a massive overhaul of our area books because we really want our area to be more organized. So we have lists and lists of people that we are trying to contact so we can update teaching records. Every day is something different and I love that we are now doing knocking with a purpose. Instead of knocking a whole building we knock one apartment with the purpose of trying to find someone that had contact with the missionaries before. We've had a lot more success finding potential investigators that way. And we randomly knocked into the English elders that way too :)

I really feel like the area is coming back to life and that we are going to be seeing a lot more success.

 

Speaking of success....we are going to have a baptism in 2 weeks if everything goes according to plan. We are so excited!! His name is (......)  and we had been thinking that he was going to get baptised in March but then yesterday we talked to his mom and she was like "all of our family is coming down the weekend of the 25th of February could we do the baptism then?" Well if the bishop says yes and (.....) passes his interview and goes to church this weekend then Saturday the 25th he will be baptised. I can't wait!!

Also, this weekend Hermana Williams and I are going to go down to the valley to see one of her old investigators get baptised. I'm really excited about that because it will be the first baptism I'll have attended on my mission.

 

This week we had the really awesome experience of setting a baptismal date with our investigator (........) I've mentioned her before. We set a date for March 18th. We really feel that because she has the date the Lord sees that she has faith in him and will make it possible for her to get baptised on that day. She and (......)  need to get married but we promised her that because of her faith the Lord would bless her to be able to get married. So today we are meeting with her and the family and hopefully we can commit (him) to be baptised that day too and talk a little more about how to get the ball rolling with their wedding.

 

We also have some amazing member referrals that we are going to meet with this week. One of them happens to live in the same home as the members so we're really excited to get to teach them. And they both already came to church this week before we had taught them the first lesson. I just love the power that member support of investigators has.

 

To end this email I would just like to share this funny quote from a member, that really has nothing to do with missionary work.

 

"This is so greasy it looks like lipgloss on my fingers!"

 

I love you all and I hope everyone has a terrific week.

 

Con amor,

 

Hermana Juliet Hansen 

Hermana Juliet Hansen - I'm getting a new companion

(This e-mail was received on Monday. Please excuse the delay in posting it here.)

Hello all,

 

Well today is transfer day. And most of the Spanish sisters are going to descend upon my apartment to do a massive companion switch at around 2 pm. Hermana White is headed to San Fernando and I'll be staying here in Santa Clarita. My new companion is going to be Hermana Williams. I'm excited to have her as a companion. I've met her a couple of times and I know that we'll get along really well. What's funny is that Hermana White and Hermana Williams were actually companions before, in the MTC and for one transfer in the field. I'm excited to see what I learn from her.

 

So funny story...earlier this past week we tried to go visit one of our investigators R........ Well she ended up not being at home. Near her house is a road sign that happens to have the same name as Hermana White's brother ....... Well after we found out that R..... wasn't home Hermana White asked if we could go take a picture of the sign. So we parked the car using the head lights to give us as much light as possible (it was night time). We were trying to get a picture to work when this lady comes out of her house in her bathrobe asking us what we were doing. So we told her we were taking a picture to send to Hna White's brother. She was super suspicious of us. Well I try to take another picture of Hna White standing under the sign and the woman says, "But why does she have to be tied up?"......huh?....."Ma'am she's not tied up!" And she starts asking us other questions like do we live around her, etc. Well the picture wasn't turning out so I'm like Hna White let's just go. We laughed so hard in the car. I don't know what she thought we were doing but how suspicious she was really amazes me.

 

Also this week I found the scripture that really describes my time in Santa Clarita. It's D&C 64:33, "be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great." We haven't been having a ton of success lately especially with finding new investigators and getting our current investigators to keep commitments but after I read that scripture I knew that every effort that we are making is worth it. It may not feel like we are successful especially numbers wise but everything we do is for a purpose and we are just planting seeds and laying foundations. Those things need to be done first before we can see success/great things. So I will continue knocking doors, working with less actives, asking for referrals, etc and hopefully everything that I'll have done in this area will help future missionaries have more success. And each small step that we take in the work will ultimately lead to something great.

 

Take care,

 

Hermana Hansen

Hermana Juliet Hansen - Transfer 2 is coming to a close !!!

So earlier this morning I was talking to my companion and I was like I have no idea what I'm going to write in my email home. And then we got to talking and we have had good experiences this week. Sometimes it's a little hard to remember them because everyday we knock and we knock and we knock and knock some more. So by the end of this week it felt like that's all we did.

 

Tuesday we had a really great sisters training given by Sister Martin. She talked a lot about the parable of the 10 virgins and how we need to be prepared like the 5 wise virgins. It was a really great training. At the end of the training President and Sister Martin talked a little bit about how they met and their engagement story. They are such a funny couple. Basically they met at BYU and President likes to say that she just flew into his arms. She was running away from a guy who was going to throw her into a pool and she ran into President's apartment saying "SAVE ME!" while locking the door behind her. Then for their first date he had asked her out for a Saturday to his mission reunion and he couldn't wait to go out with her and so he called her up and asked her out for Thursday as well. She was like "What if we don't like each other after Thursday? Am I going to have to suffer through a date on Saturday too if the one on Thursday doesn't go well???" Well the date went well, obviously. Their engagement story is funny because President completely botched it. Instead of saying will you marry me he said something like Gemmie what am I going to do with you? And the conversation continued something like this "well I don't know what are you going to do?" "I think I'll throw you to the dogs..." huh is that what he thinks of me!?! "...no I think I'll keep you." "For how long?" "Forever." And that's how they left it. And she didn't say yes or anything for 2 days. And when she did it was in a note that she sent to his apartment through her roommate. And he took so long getting to her place after she sent the note that she thought he had changed his mind. Well he didn't change his mind and obviously they have lived happily ever after. It was so cute to hear their story and it was so easy to see how much they love each other. And you're probably like what does this have to do with a sisters training. Well one of the things they talked about was marriage after the mission and one of the sisters asked how they knew they had found the one. And it launched into their story.

 

I don't know if I've ever told you all about this family we are teaching. I may have mentioned them when we found them back in November. So this family, is seriously like my ray of sunshine in our investigator pool. We found out two lessons ago that they weren't married and so we knew that our next lesson would have to be the Law of Chastity. Well the next lesson he wasn't home so we had to do a different lesson but finally this last week we were able to teach them together. I wasn't sure how it was going to go but it turned out to be the most comfortable, spirit led lesson about the law of Chastity ever. We asked if they had ever considered getting married and they were like we would have gotten married a long time ago if it weren't for some things that need to get sorted out. So they've basically been living like a married couple for years hoping that one day the problems will work out and they can finally get married. When (........)  heard that they couldn't get baptised until they got married you could tell that she was disappointed. And it's not like they could take the other option and live separately because they have a lot of kids to take care of. But I know that eventually they will be able to get married and then ultimately get baptised. They have such a desire to learn and do everything to help their family be more united. We asked (.......)  at the end of the lesson if he had prayed to know if these things were true and he said yes but that he hadn't received his answer but he's seen signs that maybe it's true. And one of those signs was the Law of Chastity!!! I love that family so much and I come away from evey lesson feeling so happy and uplifted.

 

Anyway, I don't have much time left. It's a lot of hard work right now and sometimes it can be discouraging when you knock doors for 2 hours and you don't find anyone. But then when we do find someone it's such a sweeter experience. And guess who we met this week knocking doors...Christopher Columbus :) He still exists...hahahaha.

 

Love you all.

 

Hermana Hansen