Hermana Juliet Hansen - Knocking on Doors

Good morning!!

 

Recently we've been doing a lot of knocking because we are trying to find some new people to teach. Unfortunately, the investigators that we currently have are not really progressing. Before my mission I thought I wouldn't enjoy knocking but I was wrong. In actuality I like doing it because of the wide variety of people that we get to meet.

So today I would like to give you a little taste of the types of people we've met as we've knocked in Reseda California...

 

We've had the "we're not interested" door slam, the peek through the window, wave, and ignore the door, the "I was raised (insert religion here) and don't go right now but I'm okay with my beliefs. Thanks for your time.",(those you could get just about everywhere but the rest were very singular)

 

One day we knocked a door and when opened we saw the biggest, most orange Hindu shrine I'd ever seen. The lady then told us about how she doesn't go to the doctor but instead takes a little bit of the white holy powder found on one of the pictures, mixes it with water, drinks it, and she's cured.

Another day we knocked the door of a man who believes strongly in medical marijuana. He expressed interest in coming to church but only if he could be sure that no one would judge him for wearing his "colors" (a ruby and emerald encrested cross with a marijuana leaf in the center). We left him with a pass along card to check out the mormon.org website and as we walked away he yelled, "Hemp will save the world!"

For the first time ever on Saturday we met someone who was raised going to the church of the Holy Rollers. And that same day we talked for a while with a lady who was very nice to listen to us but not super interested. Whenever we finish talking to people we always ask if we can pray with them before we go. Normally they'll just say "no thank you" but this time she told us "We don't need a Mormon prayer."

 

Life gets really interesting when we go knocking. You really never know what you'll find behind the door but sometimes we get really lucky and we find someone who has been prepared to receive the gospel. I love the experiences we've had where we knock the door and the person is really happy to see us. And the best is when they feel the spirit and then let us come into their home and teach them. Those are rare but they make every slammed door so much more worth it. And I know that if we have sufficient faith God will lead us in the right direction to find that person who is most in need right now.

 

It's time for me to go but know that I love you all.

 

Que tengan muy feliz semana! (Have a great week)

 

Con mucho amor,  

 

Hermana Hansen

Hermana Juliet Hansen - Happy Father's Day!!

Good morning!!

 

First I would like to say a CONGRATULATIONS to Meg Fike for getting baptised a couple weeks ago. If you remember she was the lady I mentioned in an email a month or two ago that sent me a letter about how she had attended a Mormon service for the first time. I got a letter this week from her saying that she had got baptised. I love hearing stories like that and knowing that the ward back at home is growing.

 

In church yesterday one of the speakers mentioned how it was Father's Day. One of the things he said was that we ought to thank our Heavenly Father for the things that He has done for us ever day but even more so on this day. I was struck by that because we grow up celebrating our earthly fathers on this day but shouldn't we also celebrate that we have a Heavenly Father as well. I'm really greatful for my earthly father but also I'm extremely greatful that I was raised knowing that I have a Father in Heaven who loves me just as much. So today I would like to say THANK YOU to my dad and my Heavenly Father for everything that they have taught me and given me. I know that without either of them my life would not be the same.

 

One of the coolest experiences this week was with the De Leon family. The other week when we had sister exchanges Hna. Arguello and I had dinner at the De Leon's home and we read with them part of the Proclamation to the Family. We invited them to look at the things mentioned in the Proclamation and pick one that they could work on as a family. About a month or so ago Hna Fish and I had shared a thought on family prayer but they still were struggling with it. And so we were hoping that they would maybe pick that as the thing to work on. And that's what they did. They decided that they would start having family prayer every day before they sat down to dinner. Well...we followed up the next time we had dinner with them a few days ago and they have been successfully having family prayer every night!!! And the 7 year old daughter is super happy that they are now doing it. And what's even better is if they happen to forget before dinner someone always remembers and reminds the family that they need to do it. I was SOOOO excited when I heard that they were seeing success in their desire to be better at family prayer. 

 

Through many of the lessons that we've had this week and just generally during my time on the mission, I've found that true conversion really only comes when gospel principles are taught and learned by the spirit. I know that much of the success that I've seen with my companions has been because we strive to always have the spirit with us.

 

I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish this week. That was a really great moment. I love the scriptures and I really really know that they can help change our lives. And I know that there is comfort in those pages that we really can't find anywhere else.

 

I'm grateful for all of you and the support you give me.

 

Con mucho amor!

 

Hermana Hansen 

Hermana Juliet Hansen - Christlike Love

Good morning all,

 

Today we start a new transfer. For me this transfer marks the half way point of my mission. CRAZY!! and Hermana Fish and I are officially staying together! We're excited to continue working together and seeing this area progress even more.  

 

This week we had the pleasure of meeting someone who truly exemplifies Christ like love. The Elders had told us about a lady named Maria Guerrero and how she had requested that the sister missionaries come and visit her. We visited with her and as she shared with us her story I really could feel how much the Lord loves her and how much she loves the Gospel. About 8 months ago she met the missionaries in the street when she was going through a really hard time. Her grandson was incredibly sick and she was very sure that he would die. The missionaries talked with her and asked if they could give her grandson a priesthood blessing. They gave him a blessing and almost immediately her grandson went from on his death bed to sitting up and asking for food like nothing was wrong. She had literally seen a miracle in her life and for that reason she knew she couldn't not join the church. You might be wondering how does she exemplify Christ like love....recently her parents starting having extremely poor health that requires around the clock care. She told us that growing up with her parents was really difficult and for a long time it was hard to forgive them for some of the things that they did but when she came to know the gospel she recognized that she needed to love her parents anyway. So she took them into her home and devotes 100% of her time to them and their needs. And she does it without complaint or desire for any reward. She does it because she knows that the Lord wants her to. To me that is Christ like love because she is willingly putting past wrongs behind her and giving of herself for the needs of others. That's what Christ did for us...he gave of himself for the benefit of us...to fulfill our need for repentance from sin.

 

I also had the opportunity to finish the New Testament this week. I fell like I've really been able to draw closer to my Savior as I've read the pages that contain the story of His life. And my testimony of Him has grown immensely. I know without a doubt that Christ lived, died, and was resurrected for our sakes, so that we could attain that great gift of living with our Heavenly Father again and receiving eternal life. I know that I can't do anything without His assistance, so I must put my trust in Him everyday. I have learned so many things from the New Testament and have come to develop such a powerful love for the scriptures. They really are for our benefit and learning.

 Here is one final favorite scripture from the New Testament that I would like to share that illustrates one of the most important lessons we could ever learn...

1 Peter 4: 12-13 "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy."  

I know that all our trials are given to us for a purpose. The Lord always wants us to learn and to grow and for that reason we all have to experience fiery trials. But God gave us His son so that through Him our trials could ultimately bring us exceeding joy. And if that joy doesn't come in this life then it will definitely come in the next life when we can rest from all of our struggles.

I know these things to be true and I invite you to read the New Testament if you haven't or re-read it if you have.

 

So as I mentioned at the beginning...I'm at the half way point. I cannot be more grateful to be on a mission at this time in my life. I know that the Lord has called me at this time, to this place, with these companions for a purpose. I'm excited to continue working in his service for another 9 months!!

 

Have an absolutely fantastic week.

 

Con mucho amor,

 

Hermana Hansen

Hermana Juliet Hansen - Humility Bringeth About The Miracles

Hello all,

 

This week was really great. And for some reason my brain is refusing to let me right out in paragraphs how great this week was. It's like I don't have the words to describe everything that has been so amazing.

So forgive the randomness but it's the only thing that I can do right now since my brain is going in a million directions.

 

Nicte finally got confirmed!!! She was so excited she skipped off the stand :)

 

We had sister exchanges. I was companions with Hermana Arguello for a day. I found out that I still don't really know my area. We got incredibly lost :) but adventures were had and I'll have to send pictures later. 

We had an awesome lesson with a member family. The spirit was super strong there and they came to realize for themselves the importance of doing family prayer. Afterwards Hna Arguello said that she was really grateful that she had the opportunity to teach a family like that because she doesn't really get to teach families in her area. We both felt like it was the least stressful day we'd had in a while. Every time  we finish sister exchanges I'm always super grateful for my companion and my area. This was no exception and my missionary fire was definitely fed a lot that day.

 

We had a super big miracle when we finally were able to teach a lady named Martha. The lesson had such a strong spirit and we were able to set a baptismal date with her! If everything goes well she will be baptised on the 24th of this month!

 

So many other great things happened this week but I lack the time to share all.

 

Getting creative with the words helped me write in paragraphs. Maybe I should do that every week.

 

I just really want to share with you how much I have come to know that pride really takes away from the blessings that the Lord could be giving us. Our lives can be so much more richly blessed if we are willing to forget ourselves and do what the Lord would have us do.

 

Love you all,

 

Hermana Hansen

Hermana Juliet Hansen - Seminary and The Ensign

Hello all,

 

I hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial day weekend with lots of food, fun, and family. Our zone of missionaries had a special activity where we played broom hockey and ate hot dogs. It was really fun.

 

This week was good. We had the opportunity to attend the last day of Seminary. The teacher for the seminary class asked us to come and share our testimonies with all of the kids to kind of give them a good start for their summer vacation. The theme for the day was on the topic of how can you apply faith, virtue, vision, and three other gospel principles to becoming a "finisher". And each student had been asked to prepare  a short essay on that topic. As each student got up and shared their thoughts I was struck by how spiritually mature these teens already are. They know who they are, children of a loving Heavenly Father and they recognize what is important in life. And they all talked about how Christ is the ultimate finisher. He did everything that the Lord asked him to do. He didn't let criticism or betrayal or temptation sway Him from His ultimate purpose, to give His life so that we might be saved. I took away from that class how important it is for us to remember what our ultimate purpose is....to live with God again and receive eternal life. And what do we have to do to get there? Finish the race that is life. Don't let criticism, peer pressure, tempation, etc. distract us from our ultimate goal. We have to have faith, cleave to virtue, maintain an eternal vision, etc and all things "will work together for our good".

 

We've been working really hard to update all of our records with regards to members in our area. And we have been blessed in that aspect. We actually found an inactive older gentleman that no one in the ward had been able to get in contact with in years. When we told the bishop that we had found that gentleman and talked with him, he was SO shocked. I'm excited to help this man come back to the Gospel. He was baptised 10 years ago and went inactive 5 years ago. I'm excited to help him remember the feelings he had when he was baptised and why he believed in the Gospel. And I'm excited to potentially bring the blessings of the Gospel to the rest of his family because he is the only one that is a member. I know that the Gospel would bless his family so much and maybe now is the time when they are most prepared to receive it. I love this potential for new adventure :)

 

This week I have learned SOOOO much. I would encourage you all to read this month's edition of the Ensign. When I read the article by President Eyring I was deeply struck by his message. I know without a doubt that the Lord speaks to us through so many different ways. And this week for me it was through the Ensign (it was an answer to one of my unspoken prayers). I know that no matter what you may have a question about, whatever you may struggle with, the Lord will always find a way to communicate with you to help you know what you need to do. That answer may come through the scriptures, through a blessing, through a church magazine, through a friend, etc. But the answer will ALWAYS come. I have no doubt about that.

 

I love you all and am grateful for you!!!

 

Hermana Hansen

Hermana Juliet Hansen - "the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind"

Hello all,

 

This week I learned a lot about myself. There were three days in a row where I really felt like I wasn't a good missionary. I had dropped the ball on a few things and I was really beating myself up about it. And after talking with a couple of other missionaries on Sunday about how I was doing I came to realize that a lot of what I was struggling with was perfectionism. I think I've always been the type where I think about what I could have done better in every situation. Even if others say I did a good job, I always think differently. Crazy, I know. And that perfectionism really affects me as a missionary. I thought I had learned the lesson about how I don't need to expect perfection at the beginning of my mission. But I guess I only applied it in one area of my life, with my Spanish learning abilities. I let go of requiring perfection of myself then and my spanish progressed a lot and I was much happier. Now that I'm learning how to be senior companion I'm having the same experience again. So I'm starting to work on letting the perfection go. Because though the Lord asks us to become perfect, I am only human and I am going to make mistakes. And when I make mistakes I just need to accept them as opportunities to learn. And one of the sister missionaries shared this quote with me after talking with her,

 

"When you let go of who you were, then Heavenly Father will show you who you really are."

So this is me resolved to let go of my old perfectionist self so that the Lord can mold me into who He needs me to be. And I'm excited to be shown who I really am. I guess you could say I'm off on a road of self discovery :)

 

In other news.... this weekend we had a baptism!!! (Sorry no pictures, I don't have the right cord to connect my camera to the computer anymore)

It was a baptism for a 10 year old named Nicte. She is such an amazing girl. She's been waiting for a while to be baptised because she really wanted her dad to do it. So for 2 years missionaries have been going over to her family's house every tuesday. Hermana Fish has told me that the change in the family over the last 3 months has been amazing. The parents used to just go to church for one hour (sacrament meeting) and the mom wasn't sure that she really had a testimony. But over these past 3 months the parents are now going to every activity, all 3 hours of church, and the mom KNOWS without a doubt that the church is true. AND what is even better is that Nicte's dad was able to baptise her! He'd never baptised anyone before, so he had to do it 3 times :) But I have never seen someone so happy to be baptised as this little girl. She is truly converted and she is SOOOO excited to get the Holy Ghost next week. This family is such a great example to me and I'm so grateful that I have a chance to be a part of their lives as they now prepare to go to the temple to sealed as a family.

 

I love you all,

 

Hermana Hansen

 

 

Hermana Juliet Hansen - Feliz dia de las madres !!

Hello all,

 

It was so great to have the opportunity to talk with the family for a little bit yesterday (Sunday). I hope everyone had a terrific Mother's Day. We had the opportunity to celebrate Mother's Day twice in our ward because Mother's Day in Mexico is the 11th of May. Our ward had a really great activity in honor of mothers on Friday night. There was really great food and then they had a live Mariachi band come and play. It was a super fun way to celebrate the weekend. And then of course American Mother's Day on Sunday.

 

This week was really great. We had a lot of success and we were kept really busy. There is so much work to be done here and we really could use another set of missionaries here to help us out. We have about 70 member families in our area (so far half of which are inactive) and about 25 families in our teaching pool of investigators. That is a lot of people that we want to work with. But with just the two of us there is not enough time in the week to visit everyone. Hopefully one day we will get more missionaries but for now we'll keep working hard and seeing as many people as we can with just our companionship.

 

The Lord is definitely blessing us for the hard work that we are putting in. One of the big miracles that happened for us this week was a lesson we had with N..... and J....... We go over to visit with N.......'s mom, A...., every Tuesday and Thursday. When the sister missionaries started visiting about 3 months ago, N..... and J....... would always go and hide in the back room or sit outside until the sisters left. Then this past Thursday we go to visit Alma and we start talking with N...... and J...... about the baptism we are going to have this weekend. (N......'s sister is dating the older brother of the girl that is getting baptised) They expressed interest in going and then N...... out of the blue asks us if we could explain Joseph Smith. We were shocked but we said sure we can explain that for you. So we sat down and talked. They actually listened to a lesson on the Restoration! It was awesome!!! And now N..... really wants to go to church. J..... has had some bad experiences with religion in the past so she's a little more skeptical but with time we're sure that she will come around. And hopefully now that the whole family is meeting with us it will be easier for them to come to church. But it was such a great lesson and we're excited to see how everything turns out with them.

 

A...... came to the ward activity on Friday which was a huge step for her. She had foot surgery about the time the sisters first started going over and so hasn't been able to go anywhere for a long time. But her recovery is going really well so she was able to spend some time at the church on Friday. We're also hoping that now that she can walk around without assistance and that she's met more people from church that she'll feel more comfortable to come to the services on Sunday.

 

Today happens to be exactly 8 months from when I entered the MTC in September. How quickly the time flies. I feel like I've come such a long way. And I know that I still have so many things to learn, I'm excited to see what else is in store.

 

Thanks for all your support.

 

Con amor,

 

Hermana Hansen

Hermana Juliet Hansen - And the learning continues...

Hello everyone!

 

This week has been a big learning curve for me. Going to a new area, a new companion, and becoming senior companion. A lot of changes in a short amount of time. But every day I'm getting a little bit better and a little bit more comfortable in the area.  

 

We're working a lot with our area book and trying to find old investigators to see if they would be interested in listening to the missionaries again. We've actually had some success with that.

One day we were looking for a man named Antonio. We knocked his door and started talking to him and he really gave off the impression that he didn't want to talk to us. So we left after a couple of minutes. I came away feeling like we wouldn't ever see him again but Hna Fish felt like we weren't done with him, that he still had some potential. We then realized that we hadn't knocked some of the other people that live in his complex so we turned around and went back in. We walk by and Antonio starts coming down his stairs to talk to us again. He was like "Wait! I have a question. Why are there so many churches?" I was floored. I don't know what changed from when we were talking to him at his door to two minutes later when we were walking by his staircase. But whatever happened we ended up talking to him for 20 minutes or so about how so many churches came to be. We then left him with a pamphlet on the restoration to read. Hopefully we can visit with him again this week and talk more....hopefully in his home and not on the staircase :)

Another day we decided that we would try to visit a family that had met with the missionaries a little over a year ago. Often times if it's been that long the people will have moved but miracle of miracle we were able to find the wife at home. This family seems so great. They loved coming to church last year but they stopped progressing because his mother showed them some anti-mormon literature. Well, the wife was incredibly welcoming. She remembered fondly the missionaries that had taught her before and she was very open to us coming back to visit. What was interesting was that in the short time that we talked with her, we learned that her husband is good friends with one of the members in our ward. So we talked with that member and he was absolutely thrilled to hear that we had found that family again. So tonight we are going with the member to visit with them.

 

We also have started teaching a 10 year old girl named Katherine. She is terrific. She is the daughter of a less active member who really wants to come back to church. We taught Katherine for the first time this week and she literally soaked everything up like a sponge. We asked to read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon before we came and visited again. And she said that she would have the first 8 chapters read!! Hardly ever does someone say that they will do more than what we assign them. Generally, they'll say well I'll try to read the chapter but I won't make any promises. She actually said that she would read way more!! Then on Sunday I asked her if she had been reading. And she said yes and that she found it to be really interesting. Hallelujah!!! We set a date with her to be baptised the 27th of this month. The only thing that would potentially keep that from happening is if her dad doesn't give permission. But we have an appointment for Wednesday and hopefully we can talk to him then.

 

So many awesome people live here. The members are terrific [they feed us a ton, so I may gain a bajillion pounds but hopefully not :)]. There are so many areas of untapped potential to find more investigators. Many of the investigators that we do have, have such a desire to learn and progress.

 

Looking back on the week it has been a really refreshing change of pace.

 

I continue to learn every day from my study of the New Testament. This week I finished Romans and read a lot in 1 Corinthians. If you ever want to know how you can become more like Christ, I would suggest reading Romans 12. I LOVE that chapter.

 

Well, that's all for now. I love you all and pray for you.

 

Con amor,

 

Hermana Hansen 

Hermana Juliet Hansen - Busy as a Bee

Hi all,

First I would like to apologize for the really lame email that I sent last week. That was not good.

Anyway, you might be asking yourselves why I titled this email "Busy as a bee..." Well, I'm getting transferred!!! After almost 6 months here in Canyon Country, I am now going to be serving in the Reseda 4th ward which is in North Hills, California. I'm super excited to be going down there. From what I know, my companion and I will not only be in charge of part of Reseda 4th but also the Young Single Adult ward. We are also part of a completely Spanish stake (in Canyon Country we were the only Spanish ward in an English stake). So I'm expecting my Spanish to really grow down there. No more teaching lessons in English for me...haha. My new companion's name is Hermana Fish. We actually had the opportunity to work together a couple of weeks ago for a day when we had sister exchanges. She is 28 years old and from Spanish Fork, Utah. She has been on her mission for almost 3 months so that means I will be her senior companion. In mission language when you are someone's second companion we call them their stepmom or stepdad. So I will be Hermana Fish's stepmom, helping her learn a different way to do the missionary work and helping her progress in her language and teaching skills. All of this will be a VERY different experience for me but I'm really excited for this opportunity to learn and grow and become a better missionary.

Also, this Sunday we had another baptism!!! It was most definitely the best way to end my time here in Canyon Country. So last week I told you that Janette and Rachel got baptised. Well this week Janette's husband, Jesus, got baptised. It was such a miracle for us. And it was so amazing to feel like we were completing a family in the Gospel. What has been so amazing with Jesus is that he has basically turned his life around in 2 weeks. We had been meeting with him for longer than that but he never seemed super excited about anything. Then he started to see the changes that were happening in Janette and he got a little more excited about the Gospel and he wanted to keep learning. So he stopped smoking and drinking coffee. As we talked to him about how it was going with all of that you could see the change in him in his face. He was visibly happier, more alert, etc. Then they got married and it was like overnight their relationship just started to blossom and be so much more unified. Then Janette got baptised and Jesus was solidly on board. He loved the spirit that he felt at her baptism. And when we taught him about tithing he was so excited to be able to pay that for the first time on Sunday. He said that he already had the money set aside ready to go. Then he got baptised yesterday. He was so nervous all day long but afterwards you could feel how at peace he was. The spirit was so strong during  that service. And I felt so overwhelmingly grateful that I had the opportunity to be a part of his growth in the Gospel.

I want to share with you part of a letter that I received this week. It was probably one of the best, if not THE best letter I've received my whole mission.

          "My name is Meg and I attended my first LDS service last Sunday at the Bellevue, TN ward....I'm fairly new to Nashville, but I felt more welcomed and uplifted in one hour last Sunday than I have my entire time living here...The kindness extended to my husband and I and the words and testimonies I heard felt so true that I am excited to go back next week. I hope others are willing to experience the church and your message and testimony. When not, I hope you're filled with the strength to continue whole-heartedly in your work...I know you are doing wonderful things by serving as a missionary."

I read that letter and I was so grateful for the things that she said. I fell like I'm getting to see the blessings that come to the home ward of a missionary. Thank you Bellevue Ward for being such amazing people and helping others feel welcomed. Keep up the good work!! This lady's name is Meg Fites. If you have the opportunity to talk to her please do. She seems like such an amazing lady and someone who has been completely prepared by the Lord to receive the Gospel.

I've been working my way through the New Testament and I am currently in Romans. I LOVE the book of Romans!!! Specifically chapters 6 and 8. In chapter 6, verses 3-6, I love how baptism is compared to the death and resurrection of Christ. For it truly is. As we are completely submerged in the water our sins are washed away and as we come out of the water we are then a new person, without sin.

I wish I had more time to really share everything that I've come to learn from these chapters of scripture. But I'll leave you with the verses that were my favorites.... chapter 8 verses 14, 16-18, 24-25, 26-28, 31, 35, 38-39. This way you can read them and then learn for yourself through the Spirit. I would love to hear about your experiences with the Scriptures and the things that you have learned.

Well that's it for this week. I'm off to a new adventure :)

Con amor,

Hermana Hansen

Hermana Juliet Hansen - A Wedding and a Quadruple Baptism

Happy Monday to everyone!!

This week was awesome...crazy...but awesome. And now because of everything that has happened I feel like I can say that I am an experienced missionary.

Our investigators Janette and Jesus got married on Saturday! That was a huge step that took quite a long time for them to accomplish. We spent forever setting up their wedding and making food. I could now make you all a really nice drink called Horchata and a delicious crab salad that you would put on tostadas.

Our district had 4 people get baptised on Sunday. That was a huge miracle. Each companionship of elders had someone get baptised and we had 2 of our investigators get baptised as well.

I wish I had time to write about everything. My mind has been all over the place this morning.

So here is what I'm going to do. You can go visit my companions blog at sisterkimberlywilliams.blogspot.com and you can see in vivid detail all of what we've been up to for the last two transfers and specifically this weekend. Her mom should have it updated some time tomorrow.

I'll try top send you all a hand written letter later describing everything myself.

Sorry that I had major writers block today. Next weeks letter should be better. Transfer calls are Saturday!

Love you all,

Hermana Hansen

Hermana Juliet Hansen - Ad campaign

Hello all,

So I told dad that I would tell you all this week about this new ad campaign that my companion and I are doing in one of our apartment windows. We decided that we would start writing up the Articles of Faith in Spanish and posting them on the window along with some pictures of Christ and the mormon. org website. We decided that this would be a different way of doing missionary work that would reach out to other people. We weren't sure for a little while if anyone actually reads it but this week we actually saw 3 people stopping to read it. That was awesome!! And you never know maybe they actually went and visited mormon.org because they were struck by what the 3rd article of faith says.... "We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel."

Here are some descriptions of the pictures.

One is of the mormon.org campaign in our window. I won't get to see it through all the way to the end because I'll probably be transferred but every week it has been really fun putting up new ones. The picture is from week one.

Another is from our sister missionary get together the Monday before Easter. It's of Sister Robb and I. She is one of the English sisters in the zone. We were the only ones to do polka dot eggs. It was really fun getting to spend some time with the other sisters.

Another is of my district. From left to right we have...Elder Reed, Elder Alvarado, Me, Hermana Williams, Elder Ruano, and Elder White. I love my district, they are all really awesome missionaries. I'll be sad to leave them when I get transferred (there is a high probability that this will happen in a couple of weeks).

The last one is of me and my companion with "C G". She is one of the Young Women in the ward and we've been working a lot with her family and some investigators that live at her house. She is an amazing girl.

We had the interesting experience of getting our apartment door knocked by an older gentleman out sharing a message of Christ for his church. I don't think he was expecting to find 2 Mormon missionaries :) It was really interesting to talk to him but we came away just feeling sad because we did our missionary thing and tried to invite him to pray about our message of a living prophet and modern revelation and he wouldn't do it. He negated the idea that there could be a true prophet and then also negated that many of the prophets in the bible were even prophets (like he said that Adam wasn't a prophet). I don't think he realized what he was saying to us. I'm grateful that I know without a doubt that God has always worked through prophets. Like the scriptures say He is "the same yesterday, today, and forever" If He called prophets before, He would do so again. And I love that as missionaries we don't ask people to take our word for it but we invite everyone to read the words of the prophets and then to pray to find out for themselves. It seems like such a simple process but I know that it is hard because when people pray to know that Joseph Smith was prophet and Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet and they receive an answer it means that they have to do something about it/change their way of thinking. And change is always hard....But isn't it worth it???

I'm grateful for all of your support and prayers. I love you and pray for you!!!

Hermana Hansen

Hermana Juliet Hansen - Happy Easter!

Hi all,

 

I hope everyone had a terrific Easter sabbath! I had the opportunity to sing in church with one of the elders and my companion accompanying us. It was such an awesome experience. I felt the Spirit testiying so strongly through us. We sang "I know that my Redeemer lives" in Spanish, a version that you can find on the Especially for Youth CDs. Some of the members came up to us later and said that we had made them cry :) It was so good to be able to share our testimonies through song.

 

Funny/tragic story for the week....We were driving along to an appointment and the entire way we had this group of kids on bikes along side us. Well at one corner we stopped at the red light and one of the kids decided not to stop. You can imagine what happened next. A car pulled out in front of him and he ploughed right into the car. He rolled over the hood and flew to the pavement in front of her. He promptly hopped back up, took his bike to the side walk, and rode away. The woman driving the car was stunned and visibly angry. The kid left quite a large dent in her car. He did nothing about it and the other kids just left with him. My companion and I were also stunned by what happened.

Moral of the story: When riding your bikes watch out for moving vehicles and don't run red lights :)

 

This week I have had the opportunity to learn and feel a little more of the love that Heavenly Father has for all of his children. Early on in the week we met the teen-age daughter of one of our investigators. We had heard a lot about her and everything that is going on in her life. When you hear a lot about someone generally you build an image in your head of what you would expect them to be like, etc. She has gotten herself into a lot of bad situations that have resulted in her getting pregnant. We met her and it was not at all like I was expecting. But what was so amazing about that experience was that I felt so strongly the love that God has for her. Yes, she has made some huge mistakes but He still loves her and wants her to come back to the arms of his love. She is a great example to me of how you can never get too far from the love of God.

Well I'm short on time. I love you all. I know that Christ lives! He loves you.

 

Til next week :)

Hermana Hansen