Hermana Juliet Hansen - Like the last coca-cola in a dry desert

Good morning all,

 

It was a great first week for my new companion and I. Her name is Hermana Whetten and she is from New Mexico. She has a lot of fire to do the work and is super excited to be out here in the field. I had been preparing for someone that didn't know Spanish but surprise surprise she already has a good foundation in the language. That was actually really relieving for me. We hit the ground running and I can tell already that it's going to be a great transfer.

 

We had a huge miracle on Sunday. So in order for someone who is less than 18 years old to get baptised (and at least one of the parents isn't a member), a permission form has been signed. This is to avoid legal issues in the future and it helps us know that the parents are willing to support their child in being involved in the church. Well, our investigator K.........  is 10 and her dad is not a member. And for the last 6 weeks or so we've been talking with her about baptism and talking with him about how he feels and if he would give us permission. Well we got verbal permission pretty early on but for some reason his response to signing was always no, she's not ready. Then yesterday HE SIGNED!!! I guess he finally feels like she's ready for this step in her life. It was such a huge answer to our prayers. And now we can move forward more with her. And she's super excited to be getting baptised in 2 weeks. I can't wait :)

 

The other great experience we had this week was with the F...... family. They are a less active family that we are working with to help reactivate. And about a month ago the parents started going back to sacrament meeting which was a huge step for them. Well last night as we were talking with the dad he shared with us a very powerful testimony about how he knew the Book of Mormon to be true. It was so amazing to hear and to know that he has progressed so much in the last few months that we've been visiting with them. And then he said that us that our visit with them were like the last coca-cola in a dry desert. That it was something that gave him hope and helped him know he could move forward even when it was hard. I love that as missionaries we have that opportunity to be a ray of hope for someone when they most need it. And often we don't even know how much of an effect we are having on someone. I know this can hold true even for normal members of the church. As we fulfill our callings and go out to visit other members we can be that "last coke in a desert" for someone. We can give them the energy to carry on and the hope that everything will be okay.

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Hansen

(Juliet also sent photos which we will add in when we can.)

Hermana Juliet Hansen - in big news

Hello all,

.....I found out on friday that I'M TRAINING!!! Hermana Fish is being transferred to an area called Canoga Park on bike. I am getting a brand new missionary and I have no idea what her name is or where she's from, absolutely nada. We have two new Spanish sisters coming out this transfer so President wants to interview both of them Wednesday morning when they get here and then he will decide which one I'll get as my companion. So it's still a really big mystery, which is kind of exciting :)

We had really awesome experiences this week and Hermana Fish and I were able to end our time together with a bang.

We found an inactive member named Constanza. We had half an hour before our next appointment and so we took a look at the list of members and we decided that we would go see her. We knocked on her door and apparently the guy that answered went to go get her and said, "There are two angels at the door for you." We are the first missionaries that have visited her in a long time. We really were super lucky to meet her too because for the last 10 years she NEVER answered the door when members or missionaries would come to visit. She told us about how she used to be super active. She was the stake primary president for 6 years, she was the Bishop's wife, she would have the missionaries over every week, etc. and then she went through a really messy divorce and she never went back to church. It was incredibly sad to hear. She really is an amazing woman and now one of my goals is to help her come back to church and remember the promises she made. We shall see how it goes.

The other experience I want to share is with our investigator A....... Her sister B...... was baptised a little over a year ago and just recently got engaged to her boyfriend (who happens to be the missionary that baptised her). Last  night we were visiting with B..... and were about to wrap up our lesson with her when her family walked in. A..... sat down and we started to talk with her and she expressed with us how frustrated and mad she is that she won't be able to go into the temple when her sister gets married. It was one of those experiences where you could feel how much she loves her sister and how much her heart is breaking because she can't see such an important event in her sister's life. Teaching with the spirit is so key. Because how do you help a 16 year old who has imagined for her whole life what it would be like at her sister's wedding understand why marriage in the temple is so important. The only way that she will be able to come understand is through her own experiences with the spirit. We told her that if she really wants to know for herself then we need to teach her and then she needs to pray to God. Really the only way that she will feel at peace with this is to receive her own personal witness from God this is what is right for her sister and her family. I truly hope we can help her to have peace about her sister's wedding.

Love you all so much,

Hermana Hansen

Hermana Juliet Hansen - Welcome to President Hall!

Hello everyone!

 

This week we had the opportunity to meet our new missiona president, President Hall, and his family. They are really great! Super funny and really excited to be here. He is already starting to change a few things but I know that it is all for the best and it will help our mission be more successful. Some missionaries are not super excited about the rules that he is being stricter on but it will just test us on how willing we are to be odedient and show our loyalty to the Lord and our mission president.

 

We had the unfortunate experience this week of our investigator, Alma, moving without us being able to say goodbye. We had sister exchanges on Tuesday and so Hermana Quick and I went to visit her at our normal time of 4:30 and her house was a wreck. She told us that she was moving and when I asked her when she said Friday. So I thought "oh good, Hermana Fish will get to say goodbye." Well we go over on Thursday at our normal time, expecting to see her, and she had already gone. Hermana Fish was soooo sad because she had been working with Alma for almost 6 months. We're sad that we didn't get to say goodbye to her but we understand why she had to leave so quickly. I know that I would want to move quickly too if a gang tried to break into my home. I really, really hope that we can get in contact with her to help her find the missionaries again. Fingers crossed!

 

Hermana Fish and I are also in charge of the Young Single Adult branch as well as the family ward. We had a blessing this week happen in that we got a new Branch president. We are so excited about this because there is FINALLY support from the leadership to have people attend the branch. We are really excited to be able to help the branch grow in size and return to what it once was.

 

My journey through reading the Old Testament in spanish continues. I am know reading all about the story of Jacob, Rachel, and Leah. Talk about sibling rivalry :) I really love reading the stories I grew up hearing in church and at home but I also like reading the things that happen in between the famous stories. You really get an understanding of how these people got to be who they were.

 

Love you all bunches,

 

Hermana Hansen  

Hermana Juliet Hansen - Lessons Learned From The Bible

Hi everyone!

 

So I can't believe I forgot to mention this last week. So almost two weeks ago we had the opportunity to go to the LA temple. It is always so amazing to be able to go to the temple and feel of the strong spirit that is there. Almost the entire mission went that day to kind of bid a fond farewell to our mission president and his wife. I had a really amazing experience as I was sitting in the celestial room after the session was done. I decided that I wanted to pray to Heavenly Father and ask him if he was happy with how I had done the first half of my mission. So that's what I did. I sat down and I asked God. And after I prayed I felt a great sense of love. It wasn't overwhelming but was enough to know that God had heard my prayer and was pleased with me. I'm grateful to know that I am doing what is right in the sight of the Lord.

 

This past week we had the opportunity to receive one last training from President Martin before he left the mission on Saturday. The training that he gave us was the training that he would give to every missionary before they went home. And part of the training that he gave was "Jerry Martin's 10 commandments for career success." For your information these are what they were...

 

1) Choose a career you can fall in love with

2) Weigh the lifestyle implications of your career choices every step of the way. (i.e. will you be able to go on vacations with the family, will you have to work on sundays, etc.)

3) Select good supervisors and role models

4) Add value every day (i.e. always be a high-value contributor. Deliver a little bit more than expected)

5) Become a quick change artist

6) Be a problem solver and not a problem pointer

7) Learn to be an effective team player

8) Surround yourself with people who challenge you

9) Attitude is a personal responsibility

10) Nurture your life anchors (i.e. God and family)

(These must work if President Martin was able to become an executive CEO of FritoLay) 

 

I was really grateful for the training that he gave. Even though these were points on how to be successful in business and career, I was able to learn some great things on how to be a better missionary.

 

And lastly I would just like to share with you the experience that I've had with the Bible. For a while now I've been contemplating if I should work on reading the Old Testament while I'm on my mission. I would go back and forth wondering if it would really be worth my time (in the essence of would it benefit my investigators). Well last week I decided that I would go ahead and start reading it. And I would do it in Spanish so it could count as language study. And I have learned that it indeed has been worth it. I LOVE the Bible. And the stories are so applicable. One lesson that I learned was from the story of Noah. There is something important from Genesis 8: 20. Noah and his family had been on the ark for approxiametly 150 days (40 days of rain and 110 days of water receeding) and when finally they were able to walk on dry ground Noah built an altar and offered a sacrifice to God. So my question for you all is....when we go through our own personal floods (temptations, sicknesses, etc), when it is all said and done do we take the time to offer up sacrifices (give thanks) to the Lord for the things that we have experienced?

 

Con mucho amor,

 

Hermana Hansen