Hermana Juliet Hansen - 3 weeks to go!!

Hello all,

 

It is so crazy to think that I'm going to be in the field in a mere three weeks. Scary, huh? How time flies when you are serving the Lord.

 

So a little funny story. The Elders in my district are pretty hilarious. Sometimes it can get a lot distracting but for the most part it's not to bad. Well last night at dinner was one of the funnier occasions but also it got a little out of hand. On occasion, we like to joke about how Elder Lasitani has eaten horse before. And so somehow that came up last night along with other crazy things that we might eat. Well we got talking about dogs. The conversation went as follows...

 

E. Lasitani: I miss my dog

Me: Oh what kind of dog did you have

E. Palmer: Medium rare

Everyone: loud laughter

E. Kane: This is getting out of hand...

E. Palmer: At what point does it become "loud laughter"?

Me: Well that's something you'll just have to ask God now isn't it?

E. Palmer: Elder Palmer 0, Hmna. Hansen 1

 

That's just a little tidbit of our district humor. I should send home some of the quotes that made it onto our quote sheet. They are all super hilarious even out of context. Most of them are Elder P or Elder O. I guess it's their role to be the class clowns.

 

In other news, this week was one of those weeks where it was like a roller coaster of bad, good, amazing, and decent days. Sunday and Monday I believe were the best days that I've had at the MTC thus far. I really do believe that how your day turns out depends a lot on what your attitude is when you wake up. On Sunday and Monday I woke up and I said to myself today is going to be an amazing day. And you know what, they were. I think a lot of it had to do with really effectively using my personal study time. I had a focus, I prayed for the Lord to guide me, and as I studied I kept praying. I learned things from the scriptures that I wouldn't have learned had I not gone about my studying in that way. I happened to be studying the scriptures that go with the song "Be thou Humble". I would highly recommend it. You can learn a lot of powerful spiritual lessons when you study the hymns. Stephen B. Allen came and talked to us on Sunday (head hauncho of all things missionary work in the Church) and one of the things he said to us was "don't be afraid to sing a hymn during a lesson when the spirit directs, even if you feel like you cannot sing". He said that the hymns are a powerful missionary tool. I really do believe that and I want to try to find ways to use the hymns more frequently.

 

I had a really powerful experience in one of our progressing investigator lessons. Elder Morales, Elder Kane, and I were teaching Louis about prayer. And it wasn't really clicking for him. I wasn't really sure why either. Then we asked if he ever prayed with his family (who are members but he is not). He then said something that changed everything. He said no because he would feel awkward praying to someone that he doesn't have a relationship with. We had been teaching the wrong thing, we needed to teach him about how he can have a relationship with God. But what was so amazing was that when he was saying that he felt like he didn't have a relationship with God I got this overwhelming feeling of love for our investigator. It witnessed to me of God's love for Louis. Even though Louis felt like he didn't have a relationship with God, God still knew him and loves him deeply. And I bore testimony to Louis of that fact and hopefully it helps.

 

I know that God loves us and that we can have a relationship with Him. He's just waiting to hear from us.

 

Love you all,

 

Hermana Hansen

Hermana Juliet Hansen - We're (over) halfway there!

Hello all,

 

I hope you are all doing well. Life at the MTC is ever changing. I now have a different "companion" for Preparation days and Sundays, as of yesterday. I haven't had much opportunity to get to know her yet so I'll tell you about her next week. She's in the advanced Spanish class though, which I'm kind of excited about because she'll be able to help me improve my Spanish a lot more.

 

So this week I had my first success story of my mission. Two Mondays ago, before my companions left for the Peru MTC, we had the opportunity to teach in the TRC (Teaching Resource center). We taught a brother who happened to be from Peru and is living in Provo with his family. We were assigned to teach the topic of "receiving revelation through prayer." We first started talking about personal prayer and it was going okay and then my companion Hermana Captain starting talking about family prayer and right then we knew that it was what he needed to hear. Well at the end of the lesson we committed him to find a time every day to have family prayer (because that was something that his family has been struggling with). We left the lesson hoping that he would do it, thinking that we might not ever see him again. Well this past monday I had the opportunity to teach him again with some of the elders and guess what....HE KEPT THE COMMITMENT!!! His family has been praying together every night at 10 pm. This was such an amazing experience to have. Even in the MTC we have managed to fulfill our purpose as missionaries "to invite others to come unto Christ."

 

Also, this week we had the opportunity to hear from Richard G. Scott at our devotional. It was so cool to hear from him. He talked a lot about receiving personal revelation. What was so interesting about this experience was that just that morning my district and I had finished watching the talk Elder Bednar gave at the MTC a little while ago about the same topic. I don't think it was mere coincidence that those two talks happened to coincide. The thing that I took away from those two talks is that we need to stop worrying about whether the thought was a prompting of the spirit or just me. They both kind of discussed how if we are doing what we are supposed to be doing that we will be instruments in God's hands and it doesn't matter if a thought came from the spirit or you. All good things come from God. Elder Bednar shared a story about giving a 20 mark note when he was a missionary  to Elder Packer and at the time he didn't recognize it as a prompting of the spirit but as time went by and he learned more about what happened after he realized that God was directing his actions. (look up the story it is really amazing). How many times does that happen in our lives? We do something not knowing what the outcome will be or why we are doing it but later we learn that we were being directed by God. So my challenge is this...let us lead our lives in such a way that we don't have to rely on the spirit to tell us everything to do but that because we are living righteously our actions will always be in accordance with God's will.

Also, if you have any experiences where this has happened in your life and you're willing to share them please send them my way.

 

Time is short. I love you all. God loves you. I know that the gospel is true and I'm so excited to be a part of this great work.

 

love,

 

Hermana Hansen

Hermana Juliet Hansen - A Month Has Gone By

Hello,

 

Can you believe it?!? I've been at the MTC for a month already. It is so amazing how quickly the time passes.

 

As an update I am now a solo sister. My companions Hermana Davis and Hermana Captain finally got their visas last night so they left bright and early this morning. Being a solo sister means that I am the only Hermana in my district and so now I teach our investigators with a companionship of elders and on Preparation days and gym times and such I am with other sisters in my zone. It's cool because it's kind of like I belong to two different districts at the same time, also kind of like I have 11 companions instead of 1. I don't know how being a solo sister will ultimately turn out but I know that the Lord has something specific for me to learn out of this. I've been praying for acceptance of God's will and the ability to recognize what I need to learn. All I know at this point is that it is going to be a really interesting learning experience and I'm excited to see where it takes me.

 

We had the opportunity to hear from Sister Julie B. Beck at our Tuesday night devotional this week. It was amazing. She talked a lot about how the family is the center of everything in the church. I wish I had my notes with me so I could share a lot more of what I learned there but I don't. One thing though, her husband shared his experience as a missionary in Italy and he talked about how when he served in Rome there were only a handful of members and how they would struggle to find people to teach. He and his companion would set up on a corner and would teach to whoever would listen until the police chased them off and then they would take the bus and move somewhere else until the police chased them off. It was like that all day every day basically. But then he discussed how miraculous it is that membership has gone (in the last 20 years or so) from a handful to enough for there to be a temple in Rome. How miraculous is that! It really testifies to me of how the Lord prepares people to hear the gospel and how no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. This is also evident in cities now having 2 temples. (Can't tell you how excited I am about the Provo tabernacle becoming a temple. It truly is a miracle!)

 

I want to share with you something I learned on Tuesday during my personal study. The night before I had prayed about what I should study and the topic of charity came to me. So I did a Topical Guide search of Charity. And the first reference is a scripture in Leviticus that talks about loving your neighbor as your self. Then I looked at all the other scriptures in paranthesis after Leviticus in the TG and there were 9 other scriptures that talked about loving your neighbor as yourself and how it was like unto loving God with all your heart. There were also a couple that talked about how loving your enemies is so important. Well as I was reading I felt struck by how all of these things are interelated. Love yourself, love your neighbor, love your enemy, love God. And then I was struck by how loving your neighbor, enemy, and God all start at loving yourself. The scriptures say love your neighbor as yourself. Well, if you don't love yourself as you should then how can you adequately love your neighbors or your enemies and more importantly how can you love God? So, I decided then that I am going to work harder at loving myself by not getting down on myself when it comes to learning the language (it's okay to make mistakes) and by not comparing my progress to that of other missionaries. I feel that if I do these things then I will be a better servant of the Lord. So my question to you all is, what can you do this week to better love yourself?

 

Oh random thing that happened this week. I moved into a new room and one night we were talking about our teachers and one of our other roommates happened to overhear us and she asked us if we were in intermediate spanish and then asked who our teacher was. We said Hermano Lewis and she was like NO WAY I dated him in high school and I'm best friends with his sister. The LDS world is incredibly small. And needless to say we now know too much about our teacher becaue she likes to give little stories about him at night. It's kind of interesting to me how that all worked out.

 

Anyway, I wish I had a funny story to share with you today but I will try to have one for next week.

 

I hope you all have a terrific week.

 

Love you,

 

Hermana Hansen

 

Our week in review #3

Saturday 01 October
For the past couple of years we have opted to watch General Conference from home. It always brings a lovely spirit into our home during that time. Today our internet and cable access went out close to the end of the first session so we did a mix of home and chapel. John had to work so he listened from there.
I highly recommend watching the talks on-line at http//lds.org
President Monson announced that the Provo Tabernacle will be saved and re-built as a temple, which caused quite a joyful noise in the Conference Center :) It is one of the oldest buildings in Provo and had been badly burned (almost to a shell) earlier this year.

Sunday 02 October
With cable and internet back in operation we were able to watch both sessions from home. Wonderful. As always lots of excellent talks. I am looking forward to listening to them again over the next few weeks while I do indexing.
Kristina sang her solo this evening at the Hillwood Presbyterian Church "Fall Follies" concert. It went well. The whole concert was very enjoyable.

Monday 03 October
Volleyball was fun today and we had a very good attendance.
Kristina had her semi-annual visit to see her neurologist. She has to go get an ultrasound done to make sure some of the issues she's been having over the past few months are not being caused by her new medication.
Nikolas picked out the stories from the New Era for FHE this evening. He chose to read the first page of "Speaking In Sacrament Meeting?" then switched to "Chain Reaction" about a boy who found himself about to watch a movie he did not like at a birthday party. After weighing his options he chose to leave the room. After a short while others who had felt the same way but were scared to be the first to get up, joined him. The movie was abandoned and games played instead. We had a good discussion about the importance of making wise choices.
Juliet sent us photographs of her missionary district with fun info about each of the missionaries. Some of them will be leaving soon.

Tuesday 04 October
I am doing double duty at the Franklin FHC Center this week. I covered for one of the other ladies today and will work my regular shift on Thursday. I found some information about one of the "married in" lines of my family. Our fabulous volunteer, Merry Anne P. (who lives on the street behind us) is going to send me information about US research so I can get better in that area.

Wednesday 05 October
We were supposed to go Visiting Teaching today but Laura P. had an issue with her shower so I rearranged the appointments and went over to help her fix it. It took a while but we got it done with the assistance of some WD40 and some new parts :)

Thursday 06 October
One of the ladies from The Bellevue Family History Group came into the Franklin FHC today. I am helping her research land records in Kansas. We had tried before with no success but I'm hoping new information has become available.

Friday 07 October
Our neighbors, the Lee's, whose house backs up to our driveway (and their sub-division) are having a large yard sale tomorrow. We have been pulling things from round the house to donate to them. They are raising money for Breast Cancer Research.
The Bellevue Genealogy Group was treated to a very interesting and amusing presentation by the director from Historic Rock Castle. After that there was a meeting about Cemetery Research (it's somewhat like a census that is taken every 10 years or so).
We had the Wardles come for dinner this evening and did a potato bar. Most of the "floor junk" from our family room is now in the spare room and hopefully we can now get it all put away properly.

Hermana Juliet Hansen - New Companions and General Conference

Hello again,
(Personal family part............)

So a few things that I want to share.

It is so interesting to be at the MTC because of the strong spirit that is felt everywhere all the time but also because of all the languages that are spoken here and the changes that occur on almost a daily basis. This week I got new companions because Hermana Sheridan left on Wednesday for the Peru MTC. My companions are now Hermanas Captain and Davis. They were supposed to go to the Peru MTC too but they have not gotten their visas yet. I don't know how long I will have them as companions but I will enjoy it while it lasts. They are superstars and I know there is a lot that we can learn from each other.

Okay, so here is a really interesting experience that I had this week. Yesterday in class we were learning how to teach investigators about the importance of kneeling vocal prayer. The teacher asked for a volunteer to give a demonstration and I volunteered. She asked me to think about someone I know who isn't a member and so I thought of Grandma Lindsay. I don't know all of Grandma Lindsay's beliefs about prayer but I tried my best. We went through a five minute discussion about prayer and then we got to the point of having to kneel and say a vocal prayer. I got on my knees and I prayed as I thought grandma would. At one point I asked to know if the church was true and I felt this warm, almost embrace and a sense of peace and comfort. It taught me a lot about receiving answers to prayers even while you are still praying. I know that I can now testify of that to investigators out of experience because I know it is possible. I want my investigators to feel that sense of the spirit like I did.

Conference was amazing. I went with three questions before and almost every single talk answered those questions. It was amazing. I'll write more next week.

Read D&C 6. It is amazing. I love how it applies so much to missionary work.

I love you and never forget that God loves you and you can feel of His love through prayer and the Atonement.

Love,

Hermana Hansen

Our week in review #2

Saturday 24th September
Nikolas had a good time today canoeing along the Harpeth River with some of the Young Men from church. This time round he did not come home with sun burn :)
John spent the day trying to work out some issues related to Lego Mindstorms.
Kristina and I attended the General Relief Society broadcast this evening. Our local Stake RS leaders organized a brief spiritual presentation and dinner beforehand. Sister Smith (our president) was not in attendance due to the death of her mother-in-law. The main broadcast was wonderful and I highly recommend watching it on the internet. President Uchtdorf gave a wonderful talk that most of the ladies could totally relate to on many levels. The closing prayer touched my heart and made me cry.

Picture courtesy of http://beinglds.blogspot.com/2011/09/forget-not-president-uchtdorf.html

Sunday 25th September
John and I are members of the Nashville Community Choir (formerly known as the Nashville Saints Community Choir). He is currently the Finance Director and I am currently the Music Library Manager. This evening was the first rehearsal after our summer break. Always organized mayhem with music packets being signed in (old) and signed out (new).We are currently scheduled to sing two Messiah performances (Clarksville and Franklin) and one Christmas concert (Nashville). We have outgrown our current rehearsal location and will be moving in a couple of weeks.

Monday 26th September
I kind of went to volleyball today. In the building archiving music and listening to the rowdiness of the ladies enjoying themselves :) I took part in the last game.
A care package was sent of to Juliet today. Hopefully the perfume spray pumps are securely enough taped shut.
For FHE this evening we opted to read and discuss "The Real Reward for Reading" from the New Era. How a young man rose to the challenge set by his seminary teacher to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. Juliet had sent us a letter so we incorporated her challenge regarding the Book of Mormon into our discussion then sent her a letter at dearelder.com
Kristina is singing in a concert on Sunday evening so we practiced for a while today. She knows her piece but lacks some confidence in her ability.
We got a phone call from Elisabeth (she usually does that when walking to work or between classes.) Her advisor is of the opinion that she could graduate early. She is looking at her options.

Tuesday 27th September
'Twas a gorgeous fall day out so I took advantage of the cooler weather to tackle trimming bushes and clearing off the driveway fence line. Anyone with dogs knows that it is probably wise to make sure there is no poop lying around before paying attention to other tasks. Alas I did not :( Once Nikolas got home from school he tackled cutting the grass. Most of our 1/2 acre yard is out front and on a slope so it takes a while to mow.

Wednesday 28th September
While I was out walking with Lucy this morning I noticed an interesting potential photo angle for the old Bellevue Log House. I'll have to start taking my camera on our walks.
The Nashville temple is about 20-30 minute drive (depending on traffic and lights) from our house. I went this morning for the first session. 2/3 ladies to 1/3 gents in the session (which was full). I would love to take a photograph of the stain glass windows from inside but that probably won't happen. They are simple and elegant with very pretty golden and soft green hues.
It was "Standards Night" for the youth at church this evening. The theme was "By Small and Simple ... Choices. Thought -> Actions -> Habits -> Character -> Destiny ->" John (HPG advisor) gave one of the talks and we learned some interesting details about some activities he participated in with his dad that led to where he is now career-wise.  Shane Adams, member of the bishopric, shared a defining moment in his younger life that led to a major change in how he perceived and treated people. Taryn Baker (Youth Sunday School teacher) talked about her life in the church as a non-member YW then goals she set to prepare to marry in the temple. The definite highlight of the evening was a very large mysterious object that Will Grigg (YM President and Engineer) built to demonstrate how a small choice can have big consequences.

Thursday 29th September
Fall weather is definitely here because we had our first foggy morning of the season AND the spiders are out weaving their webs. Our driveway gates were "webbed shut." Down the street a couple of enterprising spiders had attached to two trees and then to the road below before spinning their webs.

Friday 30th September
Our local YMCA has a very vibrant Fifty Forward group. So many activities to pick from. On Friday mornings the Bellevue History & Genealogy Group meets for a couple of hours. The leader of the group, Bob Allen, has worked very hard over the past few years to make the group successful and worthwhile. There are speakers 3 times per month and research assistance 1 time per month. This morning I helped some of the members with their research.
Hillwood has been allowing the students to go out of SSA (Standard School Attire) this week. Each day has been a different theme e.g hats, college, work. Work day -  Kristina went dressed as a science teacher and Nikolas as a missionary. For college day they both wore BYU/Cougar shirts.
John has a big assignment due ASAP at work so is working overtime to get his part done.
We are looking forward to watching the General Conference broadcasts over the week-end.