December 13, 2011

EVERYONE! I'M NOT DEAD! last pday we didn't have time to write because we had a big all-missionary activity after choir practice. it was nice to get to know some of the other missionaries a little bit better and have some fun. but i'm glad this week to have the time to write some stuff. i have things to say.

first off, we have SIX baptisms this week! weeee! the family babou is getting baptized on friday and we're pretty stoked about it. everything went well with their interviews and so we're all set to go. and last week this lady who takes care of two kids that we inherited from the sisters before us that have been taught for like a year but have never been able to get baptized because the parents never gave permission (this is becoming a really long run-on sentence DEAL WITH IT) anyway she called us last week and she was like "hey i need parental consent forms for the two kids because the parents gave their permission for them to get baptized and they want to come to the baptism and la la la everything is so great!" and we were like whaaat?! ok! so we're pretty excited about that too. so we have 6 baptisms in one day. it's going to be insane but awesome. all of the elders in our district are super jealous and we're like yeah suckers if you were awesome you could have a bajillion baptisms too. except not really because we didn't really do anything to get these baptisms--we just taught them, and God definitely did the rest. i'm realizing more and more that i don't actually do a whole lot--i just try and do my best and trust that their hearts will be prepared to accept the message. and lookee there, it kinda works! i'm really happy about the babou family though. their two kids that are getting baptized--samir is 13 and nasra is 12--they are cool kids. i love nasra--she's always super excited to see me and runs up and hugs me and kisses my cheeks. i know i can always count on her to show me some love. when we were preparing her for her baptismal interview, i was like "hey nasra, why do you want to get baptized?" and she was like "because i love God and i know this church is true!" it made my heart happy. every time i see her she tries to take my tag and wear it because she wants to do a mission too. she's just precious and i love her. 

oh yeah. guess what guys. I'M GONNA BE TAHITIAN FAMOUS! freals. on wednesday, we get this call in the morning from the assistants and they were like "hey the news people from public affairs called and they want to interview a missionary for a program they're doing and gonna put on the teeeveeee" (ok they didn't really say it like that but whatever) basically they wanted to interview and american sister and out of the choices they had, they had the most confidence in my french (to be fair, i did kind of study it in college and the rest have only had 9 months max so it's not really a fair comparison) so i got picked. so i was like uhh ok coool....and then later that afternoon they called us again and were like "oh by the way it's tonight in like 3 hours soooo...okbye!" and i was like aaah my haaair (which is always AWFUL, just so you know). anyway, i did my best to look presentable and we went so i could talk into the camera. apparently it's some sort of christmas program where they wanted me to talk about christmas in america and how it's different and how i'm going to keep the spirit of christmas with me during the mission. my response wasn't super profound, it was pretty much like "welp i think i'll try to keep the spirit of christmas with me by TEACHING PEOPLE ABOUT JESUS EVERY DAY." UHN. nah i said other stuff too and tried to sound intelligent. not sure if it totally worked, but in any case it will be broadcast on national tahitian television next sunday. so basically, i'm a celebrity everyone. you can tell all your friends and feel really cool. 

so this week i had a great blessing come into my life for four days--the sisters serving on raiatea came to stay with us. they're american. choruses of angels were singing in the heavens. my heart was filled with joy. i can't even tell you how refreshing it was to have people who understand my culture--who laugh at the same things that i laugh at, who don't tell me that everything i do is wrong, who don't expect me to read their minds. they reminded me that there IS happiness! but seriously, it was so awesome to have them with us. we got to do splits and i taught with soeur buswell, (who by the way, was in one of my french 101 classes at byu, go figure!) and it was so great! i felt so comfortable and at ease and the spirit was super strong and i was just super happy. and we had a really nice conversation that helped me a lot and gave me hope for the future. having them with us was really an answer to my prayers. they helped me to feel less alone and now i feel like i actually have friends here. when all the missionaries get together, i have people to talk to now, rather than just standing next to people and listening to conversations. 

which brings me to my next point: we finally had our missionary choir program on sunday. it was so great! there were a bajillion people who came and so many of our investigators showed up too! it was awesome. the spirit was super strong and it turned out really well. apparently the stakes on tahiti want us to do like a tour or something and re-do the program in their stakes, so i guess we're gonna do that. again, we're famous or whatever. haha. anyway, i kind of have a love/hate relationship with the missionary choir. sometimes i'm like yeah this is awesome wee! other times i'm like I HATE THE MISSIONARY CHOIR because it takes up pday and the director is kind of a tool (ok but he's really nice and works really hard but sometimes he seriously acts like he's craig jessop and i'm like DUDE YOU'VE NEVER TAKEN A MUSIC THEORY CLASS IN YOUR LIFE). anyway. the point is, it's cool but sometimes makes me want to punch myself in the face. but i will admit, it was really great to have our amis there to feel the strong spirit.

this week i had a cool experience. i was with soeur buswell on a split and we had taught a lesson and went back to the house to pick up the other sisters, but apparently my companion thought it would be a good idea to start straightening the other sister's hair so they weren't ready to go yet. so i was like "hey i was thinking about going to visit nella (one of our investigators) and see how she's doing and invite her to the program tomorrow night." no response from my companion. me: "soo...is that cool?" she shrugs her shoulders. me: OK LET'S GO SOEUR BUSWELL SEE YOU LATER HAVE FUN BEING A JERK!| just kidding i didn't say that last part. anyway, so we go to see her and she's at the house and she's way excited to see us. to give a little background, the last lesson we had with her and her sister (18 and 16 years old) i gave them the committment to baptism and they were like "yeah we had talked about it but we're not sure because we want our whole family to follow too", which is legit of course. anyway, so i was like hey will you pray about it? and they were like yeah! and i gave them ether 12 to read too. anyway, back to the story. so we go see her and she's like "hey i read that chapter you gave me. and i want to get baptized." and i'm like AH! OK! REALLY? and she's like yeah! and i was so happy. it was a moment where i really felt joy in the fruit of my labors. i'm so excited for her and excited to see her progression. 

anyway, this is long and i gotta go. but i love you all! have a good christmas!

love,

soeur hansen

November 28, 2011

oh hey everybody!

exciting things happened this week. first of all, it was thanksgiving! we organized a little feast with some of our investigators and our DMP and his family. we didn't end up doing it on the actual day of thanksgiving, because they didn't have friday off like good ol' america, so we did it on friday. remember how i've never cooked a turkey in my life? and how everyone was like "soeur hansen...we thought you knew how to do this..." because turkey isn't exactly the most common thing here in tahiti. there's not even a word for it in tahitian--they kept calling it the "big chicken". haha! it was so funny to watch them open up the raw turkey and be like uhh...what the heck are we supposed to do with this? anyway, it all worked out in the end and we had a nice little thanksgiving with turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, and pie and stuff. and we had to have rice, because tahitians have to eat rice with everything otherwise it's not a real meal. when i told them what we normally eat for thanksgiving they were like, "soo...what do you eat the rice with?" and i was like "...there's no rice in thanksgiving." and they were like "...no rice?" it was a hard concept to grasp. but i decided to ahve a little bit of a multicultural thanksgiving and include rice in the menu. hopefully i can get pictures to you soon, but i forgot my camera cord today so no pictures of thanksgiving. there's a really funny video too that we took, but i don't have it with me either. so you'll all just have to imagine. anyway, i hope thanksgiving was wonderful for everyone. i'll admit, i felt a little homesick thinking about everyone around the table eating mom's good thanksgiving cooking. although, i am proud to say that everyone LOVED my rolls. weena (dmp's wife) even wants me to teach her how to make them. weee!

also exciting thing: i had my first baptism with our investigator that we taught start to finish on saturday! ariinui is one of the brothers we're teaching--he's 15. actually it's pretty cool that he got baptized, because when we first started going to his house, it wasn't even orginally for him, it was for his older brother, and ariinui would always go into his room and not come out. but then one day he came out and sat through a lesson and we asked him if he wanted to receive the lessons, and he was lik yeah i do. what? ok! since then he has made so much progress. the baptism was really good, and i was so happy! he bore such a good testimony at the end too, i was even a little bit surprised. he remembered so much from the things that we taught him and he spoke with such confidence and surety. (is that a word? i don't even know.) i felt proud and grateful for the chance that i had to teach him. we have more baptisms coming up on the 16th and the 31st, and possibly one or two others for december or january--we're still trying to work with our amis to get them there. getting amis to commit to baptismal dates is an awesome and terrifying thing all at the same time because you want them to do it, and when they do, you're really happy, but then afterwards you're like oh crap now satan is gonna work super hard on them to try and stop them from getting baptized. so we really have to pull out the big guns to help protect our amis, haha. but watching the transformation that happens once they commit to getting baptized is really amazing. 

this week, although there were many exciting things that happened, was also a super weird week. we called it the week of "cacaboudin." what is cacaboudin, you ask? roughly translated, grumpy. cantankerous. ill-humoured. bleh. yeah. bleh. i think that sums it up pretty well. here's an example--on tuesday, we had 8 lessons planned and we were stoked because we had set a goal for 30 lessons total for the week. guess how many of those 8 got canceled? SEVEN. seven lessons fell through in one day! guhhhh! it was the worst! and then the rest of the week was just weird. everyone was in a weird mood, our amis were cranky and flaky, me and s. taie were cranky, dmp and his wife were cranky. everyone was doing their cacaboudin! it was the worst! but this week is going to be better. 

i've been reflecting a lot lately on the idea of happiness, and how we can be happy. admittedly, the reason for this reflection is because i often find myself feeling unhappy, and i'm not sure why. i'm trying my best to be obedient and to work hard, to pray aallllll the tiiiiiiiime and to read my scriptures, and to try and serve people, basically to do all the things that i know will help me to be happy, and yet, there is something missing. i kept thinking to myself, "ah maybe when i get transferred i'll be happy, maybe when i go to a different island, maybe this maybe that..." waiting around for happiness to hit me in the face or something. i came across elder uchtdorf's talk from the general relief society broadcast, and i think it was exactly what i needed to hear. he talked about choosing to be happy now, and not waiting for the "golden ticket" like in charlie and the chocolate factory. if we just open our eyes, we have so much to be happy about. and it's true, i really do have a whole lot to be happy about.

anyway, i was struggling to keep my head about water, bogged down by discouragement and loneliness, when the words of the hymn "count your many blessings" came into my mind: "when upon life's billows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged thinking all is lost, count you many blessings name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the lord has done." i decided to say a prayer of gratitude, and instead of asking for things, to just say thank you for the things that i did have. it probably sounds super cliche, but as i prayed, i felt a warm peace wash over me, a sense of satisfaction and happiness. i finished my prayer, and looked up with a smile. i know that things are still going to be hard--missions are super hard. everyone told me that it would be, but i didn't understand what kind of hard it was oging to be until i got here. i know it will still be hard, but i also know that this is the thing that is most valuable for me to be doing right now. and i have a lot to be happy about. 

i'm going to end there because my time is about up, but i love you all and miss you! i hope everything is going well back home. oh and i'm the worst at writing letters, but i made myself the promise that i was going to be better, so expect some hand-written goodness from me soon! love!

love,

soeur Hansen

November 21, 2011

hey everybody,

sorry to be MIA last week--believe me, i was sad about it. it's never fun not to be able to have news from home. even today i'm super rushed, all because of the choir practices. but, after the 11 december i should be able to write my emails in peace--hopefully. anyway, time is FLYING by--i can't believe it's almost december already! we've been pretty busy the past week or so, preparing for activities planned for our investigators and what not. i had my first zone conference this past week, and it was really good. there were a lot of things that we talked about during the conference that really helped me and boosted my spirits. the past two weeks, to be honest, have been super hard. i feel like satan has been working pretty hard on me lately to get me down and discouraged and weaken my faith. there are times when it's really difficult not to feel totally inadequate, like i have nothing to offer people here. i know that's not true, obviously, but constant feelings of failure are hard to shake off. but, little by little, things do get better. i had a good scripture study experience this week--i woke up one morning, dreading another day of feeling insecure and inadequate. i didn't know how i was going to face the day, to be honest, but i knew that i had to try, obviously. so i just said my prayers and prayed that i would be able to feel the spirit and receive the strength i needed to keep going. i got ready, and then went to do my personal study, and opened up to 2 nephi 4--nephi's psalm. this chapter was an answer to my prayer--even nephi had moments of despair and self-doubt, but he knew how to place his confidence in the Lord and move forward with faith. i felt like my spiritual batteries were recharged after reading that chapter, and i was able to go throughout my day feeling confident and excited to work. it's true that it's hard to teach some of our investigators, because they aren't really making progress, but there are others that are moving forward and getting stronger in the gospel every day. just the other day, the two brothers we're teaching were like "man the gospel really brings changes. we used to fight all the time, and now we hardly ever do!" anyway, things are still rolling along. i know that God doesn't give us trials that he knows we can't handle--there's always a purpose behind the hard times. we just need to have faith that if we do our best, after the refiner's fire we'll come out even better than before. hopefully this doesn't sound too depressing. don't worry, i'm not like crying in the shower or anything.

good news! the babou family set their baptismal date--december 16! we had to pray a lot for them, because they originally wanted to wait until february and we were like whaa? because they're so ready NOW. anyway, after fasting and prayer, they decided on the date and there was much rejoicing in the land. this family is way cool. honestly, they were ready even before we started the lessons with them, so i don't really feel like i did that much, haha. but i'm happy to be able to witness the process of their conversion and baptism. i know they'll be a strong family in the church.

this week i gave my first committment to baptism to one of our investigators--he's been taking the lessons for a long time and there's not really anything standing in the way of his baptism, he just doesn't have enough confidence in himself. he's scared of falling again after taking the leap. but we had a really good lesson with him and i invited him to be baptized on the 14 of december (your birthday, mom!) and he was like "haha whaa?" and i was like yeah man, you can do it. he didn't say no, so it wasn't a total bust. but he's going to ponder and pray and all that good stuff, so hopefully we'll be able to see some progress with him soon.

tahitian is still kicking my butt, guys. it's insane how such a simple language can be so dang hard. but, i'm really grateful for our DMP because he is really trying to help me learn. unfortunately during lessons in tahitian, my companion thinks that the best way to help me is to not help me at all, so i kind of have to learn trial by fire. but the DMP is really awesome and is working with me a lot to help me progress. i was super stressed this past week because we had a lesson with one of our investigators and it was my turn to teach the spirit world, resurrection, judgement, and kingdoms of glory. in tahitian. what?! yeah. i was kind of freaking out, but i really did my best to prepare. i put the promise in D&C 11 to the test--seek to obtain my word, and your tongue will be loosed. i put my all into preparing for that lesson, and said ok let's do this. and i tried to walk in with confidence and faith that the Lord would keep his promise to me. honestly, i don't even remember what i said, but at the end of the lesson, our investigator understood what i had taught and started talking about how she wanted to get baptized. what?! ok! obviously i'm not fluent. and i still have a loooooooooooong way to go before i feel confident in speaking and understanding, but it was an experience that strengthened my testimony that God keeps his promises and is there to help us when we need it.

anyway, i gotta go. no time. but i love you and miss you and keep you in my prayers. happy thanksgiving this week!!

love,
soeur hansen

November 14, 2011

hi everyone

i have no time to write today--we've been playing taxi all day and now pday is over. i'm pretty bummed that i can't write. just know that i love you all and you have been in my thoughts much this week. keep praying for me and for missionaries everywhere. sending my love!

love,
soeur hansen

November 7, 2011

Nov. 7
oh hey everybody,

first things first. remember last week when i was like "hey me and my companion are going on a diet!"

that was a joke.

except, it wasn't really a joke in the beginning. but in reality, the concept of a diet as a missionary in tahiti is the funniest joke everrrrr. our diet failed so hardcore that there aren't even words to describe it. so yeah, we abandoned that pretty quickly. it's just difficult to be on a diet when you're not incharge of what you eat, but you're at the mercy of members and investigators who feed you. and who take pleasure in feeding you, and are offended if you don't eat their food. eh. the point is, i'm not on a diet. but i'm trying to be more moderate in my eating habits, so hopefully i won't be a candidate for "biggest loser" by the time i get home from my mission.

in other news, guess what! we got two committments to baptism this week! the two brothers we're teaching chose their dates. we were actually pretty surprised at one of them. two weeks ago we committed them to pray for a baptismal date, and we followed up afterwards and they still weren't sure. one of the brothers is really solid, and the other one we had thought was kind of just following his older brother's footsteps. but this past week, we asked them if they had chosen their dates and the older brother was like "yeah, december 31st." and we were all really happy and then we asked the younger brother and he paused for a long time, and i was like "ah he's not responding maybe because he doesn't really want to..." but then, he was like "yeah. i chose my date. but it's kind of soon...november 26th." whoa! what?! but ever since then he has been totally on fire! asking all sorts of questions and participating really well during lessons. and he asked me and s. taie to speak at his baptism too. so we're pretty excited about them and are working hard to prepare them so they'll be ready for the baptisms. it's really cool to see the changes they're making, even as teenagers. sometimes i think we doubt that people can do it--like, oh he's 15 there's no way he's going to be interested in this. but then at the same time, if you think about it, hey, joseph smith was 14! why not? i'm learning more and more the importance of casting aside doubt and having faith that people can change. of course it puts you in a bit of a vulnerable position to have faith in people, because there's always the chance that they won't change and you'll be disappointed. but at the end of the day, if you don't believe that they can change, who will? i know that this gospel is for everyone, not just for a chosen few. it is something that can bring happiness and fulfillment to each and every person in the world, if they will chose to accept it. seeing the changes that our investigators have been able to make, and the light that is coming into their countenances is really amazing.

one of the investigator families that we're working with, the babou family (i've talked about them before--we did halloween with them, and service project planting a garden) is doing really well too. we fasted with them yesterday about baptism so they could pick their dates too. we ran into a roadblock with the dad though, jean-marc. he was really uneasy about paying tithing and didn't know if he would be able to do it because of all the financial responsibilities he has on his shoulders right now. but we had a really good lesson about the blessings of tithing and the importance of faith, and he seemed much more comfortable with the idea and committed to live the law of tithing. we're going to continue to work with them, obviously.

oh yeah, something really cute happened at our appartment this week--our water got cut! oh wait, did i say cute? because i meant to say THE MOST ANNOYING THING EVER! guess who learned how to bathe using a cooler and a water bottle? this girl. we didn't have water for about 3 days, and even now it's a little bit of a russian roulette on whether or not we'll have water when we get home at night. luckily we have a good DMP and his wife who let us shower at their house sometimes. they have a son who is 5 and who loves us too. he's seriously one of the most adorable kids i've ever met. so funny. weena (DMP's wife) was telling me the other night how he was talking to his grandma, who was sleeping:

kuhio (lil' boy): "mami (that's how they call their grandmas here)!"
mami: *sleepy grunt*
kuhio: "mami, am i handsome?"
mami: "yes, kuhio. go to sleep."
kuhio: "ok i'm going to hit on the sister missionaries."
mami: "huh?!!"
kuhio: "nigh-night mami!"

hahaha. so he loves us, no big deal.

anyway, things here are going alright. although i gotta be honest, being a foreigner isn't always the most awesome thing ever. either i'm a constant novelty, like "oh ha look at the funny american and the funny things she says, do you know lots of movie stars, do you know john who lives in america, la la la", or i'm automatically inferior because i'm not from here. i get almost constant directives on how to do simple tasks and i'm like yes thank you, i'm not an idiot. it's frustrating and has been quite the test of patience and humility for me. i'm afraid i'm not passing the test quite yet. it's pretty exhausting to always feel like i'm doing something wrong, and to not have any idea exactly what it is that i'm doing wrong, because feedback is kind of a foreign concept i guess. anyway, like i said before, i just need to be more humble and learn how to adapt a little bit better. the scriptures have been a great comfort to me this week--they are not culturally biased and speak to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people. this week i studied moroni 7 and rediscovered some really good verses about faith, and charity, and how miracles have not ceased. in preach my gospel it warns against discouragement, because discouragement weakens faith. so, even though this week was pretty discouraging, i can't let it get me down. the mission really is a refiner's fire--your weaknesses become very apparent, and satan really tries to make you forget your strengths. but as it says in moroni 7:33, through our faith we can accomplish all that the savior would have us do.

anyway, this email is getting way too long, so i'm gonna sign off. love you all and miss you! you are always in my prayers. thanks for all the support you send my way!

love,
soeur hansen

October 31, 2011

Oct. 31
hey errbody!

first of all, happy halloween! let me explain how halloween goes down here in tahiti: it doesn't. yeah. halloween is an american holiday. i was talking to my companion about it, and she was like dude, candy is already expensive enough here, we're not just gonna buy it and give it away to dumb kids just because they're in a spiderman costume. haha! but we're going to have a little halloween party with our investigator family tonight for FHE. we already have our orange shirts and black skirts (the one that still fits) ready to go. and then today is the last day that we get to eat candy because from november to christmas, we goin' on a diiiiieetttttttttt. yup. wanna know why? because this week, all the sisters had a super special meeting with our mission president and his wife so that they could tell us that WE'RE TOO FAT.

not kidding.

seriously. that was the topic of the meeting. our clothes are too tight because we're gaining too much weight, and the mission president's wife told us "don't write home and tell your parents to send you bigger clothes. that's not fixing the problem. you're all going to get even more massive if you do that. if your clothes don't fit, it means you need to lose weight." don't worry, i burned plenty of calories that night CRYING MYSELF TO SLEEP!! just kidding. i didn't really feel too targeted in the meeting because she was like "the american sisters aren't fat. the tahitian sisters are." she was pretty blunt. although admittedly, i can't comfortably wear about half of the clothes i brought here. whoops. anyway, so my companion and i were like "welp, guess it's time to stop compulsively eating candy..." we were gonna start the diet last week, but then it was our investigator's birthday, and then it was halloween....sooo....we were just like "hey why not start fresh in november? yeah ok!" haha. i have a feeling i'm going to be really really grumpy until christmas.

good news though--my companion is totally teaching me how to dance tahitian style. before her mission she was in a dance group that participates in a nation-wide competition called the heiva (i think that's how you spell it)...so she teaches me all kinds of stuff. and one of our investigators is a professional dancer--she dances so crazy good it's unbelievable, and she made me a cd with tahitian music (mostly just the drum type stuff) so we could do that for our daily exercise. it might sound like light stuff, but seriously, my legs are crying by the time our 30 minute exercise time is up. if i keep this up, i'm going to have the quads of a thoroughbred by the time i get home. anyway, s. taie and i prepared a dance for our investigator nass' birthday and then performed it for her at her party. it was hilarious. i look borderline handicapped dancing next to her, haah! but nass was all about it, which was the point, so i can't be too prideful. hah. oh and we did a service project this week for nass and her family--planted a garden. i felt legit. hopefully the stuff i planted will grow.

anyway, this past week was pretty solid. are investigators are cool and most of them are making good progess, which is really cool to see. we're teaching two brothers right now, 18 and 15, and for a while things were touch and go with them because their parents were threatening (are threatening, actually) to kick them out of the house if they get baptized, so we were nervous that they were going to back out on us, but actually they're even stronger now than they were before. it's pretty amazing what prayer can do. at our last lesson, they were so awesome! they asked tons of questions and had lots of things to say, and they had even prepared a song to sing for us--"the army of helaman." it was the greatest thing everrrr! i loved it. it's awesome to see the changes in their countenances. they are so eager to learn. i couldn't help but picture them as future missionaries as they sang that song, and it made me happy. i was talking to my companion about the challenge of the parents not wanting them to get baptized, and she was like "yeah it's always like that. when they get close to deciding to get baptized, there's always something that comes up to try and stop them." satan definitely tries to stop people from progressing, but like it says in 1 nephi 3:7, there's always a way to accomplish what God has commanded us to do. we just have to keep moving forward with faith, because it's not until after the trial that we get a witness. scripture talk, uhn! but seriously, these boys are solid and i know that they will be strong in the gospel. i'm grateful for all of our investigators. i love going to teach them. obviously some days are better than others, and i don't have miraculous experiences every day, but each day i do have things that strengthen my testimony and my resolve to spread the message of the gospel.

anyway, i gotta wrap this up. hope everyone is doing well. thinking of you and sending my love!

love,
soeur Hansen

October 24, 2011

hi everyone,

this is going to be a fast and furious email because i only have a few minutes to write. pdays are going to fly by for the next month or so because we have choir practice in the morning for our missionary program in december, and then we have to be the chaffeur for some sisters becuase we're the only sisters with a car. so by the time we get done with practice, and then take the sisters back, and do our grocery shopping, bleh! no more time! so sorry for the lack of a really well thought out and clever email. you'll just have to deal with this.

anyway, this was an exhausting week--it's transfer time, which also means more chaffeuring for us. we had to pick up sisters from the airport, drop them off, pick up sisters from the boat, drop them off (at 4:30 in the morrrniiiiiiinggggg), and then take s. harline to get dropped off at her new secteur. woof. it was tiring. but other than that, things are going pretty well. our amis (investigators) are cool and we're starting to get pretty attached to them. we're hoping to get some committments to baptism this week, because there are a few that seem like they're really ready. i think i might have said that in my letter last week. whoops. remember how my life is pretty much the same every week? oh right. ok.

we had a really good experience this week teaching a new ami--he's a 12 year old boy who has cancer. his dad is an inactive member and his mom isn't a member, but his grandma is and that's how he got into contact with the church. he's really really cute and comes to church with his grandma on sundays. anyway, we had our first lesson with him this past week, and both of his parents were there and it went really well. the spirit was so strong! hopefully through his desire to go to church, he can touch the hearts of his parents too. his mom actually seems interested--she tried to stay off to the side but you could tell from her body language that she was listening. anyway, they seem like a really cool family so i'm hoping we'll be able to make some good progress with them.

anyway, we're getting two new elders in our district this week, which is good. i'm hoping they'll bring some life into our district because right now it is sooooooooooooo borrrrrrrrrrrring. the elders aren't fun at all! all they do is whisper to each other during district meetings and i'm like "oh right i forgot we were back in 4TH GRADE." what the heck? bleh. no fun at all. i even try to joke around with them and it's like blank stares all the time. i'm starting to suspect that they've never spoken with a female before. i'm glad that i have s. taie as my companion though, because we have fun together. she is a really good people person and is so good at starting up conversations and being friends with people. it has really helped us get to know the ward members and our investigators. i don't know what i'm going to do when i have to start being socially capable on my own again. meh.

in other news, i look like i have a disease on my legs because i have so many mosquito bites. seriously. people are starting to stare. i don't know what the heck the problem is. well, maybe it's because i sleep outside every night. BUT THERE'S NO WHERE ELSE TO SLEEP! and i put on bugspray! whatever. it kind of makes me hate my life sometimes, but i'm working on being disciplined and not scratching because otherwise i'm seriously going to look like a leper.

welp i think i need to sign off. we're getting kicked off the computers pretty soon so i'm gonna wrap this up. sorry to be so brief. love you!!

love,
soeur hansen

october 10, 2011

oct. 10


hey everyone,

another week, another 5 pounds gained. just kidding. but seriously. i'm getting fat. it was kind of an exaggeration before, but the rolls are starting to muliply. this week was a particularly brutal food week because EVERYONE WANTS TO FEED US UNTIL WE CRY. seriously. the past four days, we've eaten 4 dinners. please kill me. guhh it feels so wrong but it tastes so right!! haha. there's this ice cream that they have here called taro ice cream--now taro is a type of root that is kiiiiind of like a potato but not really. how they came up with the idea to make ice cream out of that, i have no idea. (like "oh hey, here's this potato thing, that'd be a good dessert, right?" ooook...)anyway, it's the color of purple playdo. not sure how that happened either. but it is seriously the most delicious thing ever. i can't even explain what flavor it is. but IT'S SO GOOD. s. harline and i made a BTS cake (or as mom calls it "better than almost anything" cake) to take to one of our dinners, and it was quite the success. everyone was very impressed with our skills, especially since we didn't mention that we used a box mix for the cake. haaaWHOOPS. anyway, long story short: i eat a lot of food, and it is starting to show.

BUT. i'm going to learn how to tahitian dance this week! they're having a cultural night this friday with dancing and singing and story telling and duh, food, and we got invited to go to the practices, because there are investigators who are participating. so it'll be a nice double-whammy--supporting investigators, and learning how to shake it. UHN. i'm way excited though--the dances are so cool! i'm sure i'll look like a handicapped wild animal, but whatever. it'll be fun. and members love laughing at americans doing stupid stuff, so it'll be a great way for me to win affection by my stupidity. maybe if i get a video and figure out how to send it via mail you all can enjoy the show too. and then you can see how fat i am! haha.

this week was an AWESOME week. we taught like a bajillion lessons and got 5 new investigators who all seem really cool and ready. it's pretty amazing how you can see how peoples' paths have been prepared for them to receive the gospel. like this one family that we just started teaching--the dad is from france, and he met the missionaries when he was 24 but it didn't really stick, but now he's married and has three kids and is living in tahiti and they've all been coming to church for a month and he's like yeah i know this is true. i mean he comes to church in a shirt and tie and looks like he's been a member his whole life! and they prayed for the first time in our lesson without us even having to prod them along. it was so great. and their kids are super cute and funny--it makes it all the more awesome because they'll all get to go to the temple together someday. we just started teaching these two brothers too--18 and 15. the 15 year old is a little reluctant, but the 18 year old is totally solid. he really surprised me the other day in our lesson, because he was like "so how long do these lessons go for?" and was like "well there's 4 lessons that we have to teach you...what are you sick of us already?" and he laughed and was like "no i just wanted to know how long it was going to be before i could get baptized." WHAt?! OK! and he told us about how he prayed to know this was the true church and he got an answer and felt really good about it. hooray! he's a cool kid. and he trains roosters. so that's cool. haha.

so one of our recent converts is an old guy who only speaks tahitian, and he doesn't know how to read or write. so we're teaching him. it's really hard, but i love it. he's really eager to learn and it's really awesome to see his face light up when he gets a letter or a word. i made up little cards with the letters (luckily there's only like 13 letters in the tahitian alphabet and everything is phonetic) on them and a picture of something that starts with that letter to help him remember the sound. so we've been working a lot with that. it's slow-going for sure, but it's really cool. it feels good to know that we're really helping him. and since we started doing that, one of his daughters (not a member) has been sitting in on his lessons and she seems to like us a lot. i invited her to come to the cultural night, so hopefully she'll take up that invitation. our other investigators are doing pretty good. hahaha, we have one who's a 9 year old girl and she seriously has the memory of a goldfish. i'm not kidding. we'll tell her something, and 30 seconds later she can't remember what it was. for example, we were teaching about the spirit world and how the body stays in the earth and the spirit goes to paradise or prison, and every time we asked her "so where does the body go after you die?" and EVERY TIME she was like "...to paradise?" NO! GAH! seriously. at least 10 times. hahahaha. sometimes it makes me want to punch myself in the face. but she's really really cute and is starting to be less shy with us, so patience is just an attribute i'm going to have to work on. haha.

anyway, things are rolling along here. it's really fun to get new investigators, and it's definitely thanks to our ward mission leader who works hard. i'm learning more and more that ward members are really crucial to missionary work--without their references, we wouldn't have any of these new investigators. so this is my missionary pitch for this letter--help the missionaries! give them references! be brave! you don't need a tag to be a missionary. you will make the missionaries in your ward SO happy if you help them with references. it helps us to be more effective for sure. anyway, just remember that. other than that, things are good. transfers are coming up and we think that s. harline is probably going to get moved since she's done being trained and there are a few sisters going home in other areas that need to be replaced. it'll be weird to just be in a two-some like it should be normally. but s. taie is way cool--she is really funny and laughs so easily, so it brings a happy and optimistic spirit into our work. and she laughs at my jokes, which obviously makes me love her. we have private dance parties in the car driving from lesson to lesson, listening to church music. oh, did i ever tell you how contemporary church music makes me want to set myself on fire?! but i'm getting used to it.

ANYWAY. this is long, and harline is waiting for the computer. i love you all, and think you're great. OH BY THE WAY. written letters would be lovely, if you get the chance. i haven't gotten any since i've been here (a month, weee!), and i'm starting to feel neglected. boo hoo. write me.

Mission Mormone, B.P. 93
Papeete, Tahiti 98714
Polynesie Francaise

much love,
soeur hansen

october 3, 2011

oct. 3

hey everybody,

not too much time to write because we're sharing the computer between 3 people. but i do have some exciting news: today i became a real woman. i drove for the first time in tahiti, even into the city. and it was raining. i was cool as a cucumber, zooming in and out of lanes, just like a native baby. haha not really. but in any case, i made my debut driving in the mission, and i am alive to tell the tale.

anyway, how 'bout that general conference, eh? so great! definitely just what i needed. although i will admit, it made me a little homesick to see temple square and the conference center! just thinking about going to kneaders to get french toast before heading up to the session....sigh. it was weird not to be there! but oh well. i really loved president monson's talk, but all of them were good. i was disappointed not to be able to hear elder holland's talk, but i guess i'll just read it when it comes out in the liahona. oh yeah by the way. remember how conference is at 10am in the US? oooh right remember how tahiti is 4 hours behind america? guess who watched conference at 6 in the morning? THIS GIRL. and believe it or not, this was the first conference where i didn't fall asleep in any of the sessions. i've got special missionary powers, man. but no, it was way good. and i was so excited to hear about the tabernacle being rebuilt into a temple! that's so awesome.

hmmm what else. oh, we got a new trainer. her name is soeur taie. she's way cool, and has definitely brought a little more life into the house and our companionship. this past week was pretty hard in the beginning--it's been kind of slow going with our investigators who weren't making any progress. but we just got a new ward mission leader in one of our wards that we're over and he is WAY motivated and enthusiastic about missionary work. we had a meeting with him and he was like "yeah we're in the process of preparing like 14 people for you to teach." whoa! and the other week doing contacting we found two sisters, 16 and 18 interested in receiving the lessons and we've met with them twice so far. they are really awesome! they actually participate in the lessons and share their thoughts and are excited about the message--it's a nice change of pace, haha. most of our lessons are in french, except for a few in tahitian. mostly all the old people prefer to speak tahitian so luckily s. taie speaks it and helps us, ahah. but i'm getting a little better at understanding and speaking. so little by little, as with all things. anyway, so things are picking up here, which is nice. the three wards we're over are puurai, pamatai, and oremu. they're all good wards and the members feed us very well. thank goodness for elastic waists. this week was pretty awkward with the ward members because everyone kept asking us where s. terooatea (my old trainer) went and we were like "errr...well...she's not with us anymore?" and they're like "oh did she get transferred?" and we're like "uhh...yeah but...permanently transferred...to her home." whoops! seriously. had that conversation like fifty million times. still just as awkward every time. there has been quite a bit of drama surrounding that, which is weird and makes me feel like i'm in a soap opera or something. oh well, i guess it keeps life interesting, especially when you can't watch tv. but i really like the new trainer. soeur harline has been like deathly ill this week, which sucks. she's kind of a teeny bit of a whiner, so being sick does not help that at all. i love her though.

anyway, i don't really have too much to report. things are pretty constant here (except for the whole my trainer getting sent home thing...whoops!)--still trying to work hard, still getting fat. it's funny, because i get more sleep than i've ever gotten in my life (8 hours a night! who does that?? infants??), and yet i'm still more tired than i've ever been. i guess that just means we're working, haha. we have two baptisms coming up next week--the couple that got married that i sent the pictures of. that should be exciting, my first ones since i've been here. ummmm i really can't think of anything else, hopefully next week's email will be a little more exciting and witty. sorry! but i love you, and miss you!

love,
soeur hansen

september 26, 2011

oh heeeey everyone,

another pday has arrived and i am still living, no longer barfing. i'm even starting to toughen up so i don't get as carsick anymore! although i have to sit in the front every time, and i don't think i've gained enough trust to be given the keys to drive yet (even after crawling up through the bathroom window to open the door!). maybe this week i'll be inaugurated into the wonderful world of tahitian driving. anyway, this was an interesting week. there were a lot of things that seemed to keep coming up that messed up our plans every day, so we didn't get to teach as many people as we wanted to, appointments kept falling through, just random stuff like that. it was pretty frustrating a lot of the time because we'd come home and be like "gaah what did we even do today??" but there were some really awesome things that happened this week. apparently a few weeks ago (before i got here), my companions were at the gas station filling up, and this guy was like "oh you're the missionaries? what do i have to do to come back to church?" (cue the drooling and panting). so they set up an appointment with him to come visit. anyway, when we went to do our tracting last week (i might have mentioned this already in my letter last week), we met some girls and one of them was like "oh yeah i'm already meeting with you with my husband next week" so we were like whoa! anyway. we went to see both of them this week, and it was honestly just incredible. it was such a testimony to how people are really being prepared to hear the message of the gospel. we started talking about the plan of salvation, and how it is a plan of happiness, and the woman just like started crying and telling us about how that's exactly what she's looking for. the spirit was really strong--it was awesome. and then we started talking about the temple and eternal families and they were both like "yeah we totally want to do that!" gah! it was so great! all three of us walked away and we were just like giddy. it was a really refreshing lesson to have, because with a lot of the people that we're teaching right now, there's just...no progression, and it gets pretty discouraging sometimes. although i did have a pretty humbling experience this past week--i was kind of griping mentally (i know, i'm a terrible person) about going to teach this one investigator, because we see her every day and have been seeing her every day for a long time even before i got here, and there's no progression. anyway, so i was kind of just thinking to myself, "guhh what's the point she doesn't care about what we're trying to teach her blah blah blah i'm a bad missionary person blah blah." but i prepared my lesson and tried my best to make it apply to her. anyway, so we're teaching her, and at the end of the lesson, she totally opens up and starts telling us about how much our visits mean to her and how much they're helping her and started telling us about some of the trials that she has in her life right now and how much our lessons and our committments have been helping her to get through them and i was just floored. i felt so ashamed for thinking that our visits were pointless. it was a very necessary reminder to me that i need to practice a little better what i'm preaching about perservering, patience, and charity. so that has helped me shift my perspective a little bit since then. admittedly, it is still hard to go to the same peoples' houses every day, see the same problems, and not see anything change despite their promises to do so. but that's life, right? all we can do is continue to try and support them and help them understand the importance of the gospel and how it can help them.

anyway, some funny stuff happened this week. our investigators are really cool, and for the most part our lessons are simple and they ask questions that we can answer with confidence. but this past week, one of our investigators, totally out of nowhere (we had been talking about nephi making two sets of plates in 1 nephi), he was like "why do i have to get married if jesus didn't get married? why didn't jesus get married?" and was just like EXCUSE ME WHILE I GO PUNCH MYSELF IN THE FACE REALLY FAST, I'LL BE RIGHT BACK. oh my gosh. i just about died. LUCKILY, during my moment of total panic, my companion s. terooatea offered a good answer (although in retrospect i'm pretty sure it wasn't doctrinally sound, but whatever, milk before meat right?) and satisfied the question. we all got back into the car afterwards and were like WHAT?!! hahaha. it was so great. we're still teaching our two people that only speak tahitian (they recently got baptized so we're just doing the follow-up lessons), which, being translated, means i sit there and smile and nod while s. terooatea teaches and then i bear my testimony in tahitian. although i have tried to do my part by preparing lessons for them, which goes over just fine while i do it and then s. terooatea reteaches the lesson after me because the people don't understand me. hahahaha. anyway, it's funny but at the same time makes me want to set myself on fire. and earlier this week i was just like WHATEVER I SPEAK FRENCH I DON'T NEED TO LEARN TAHITIAN GET OUT OF MY LIFE! but then God took out his spiritual bat and smacked me around a little bit and i realized that i was called to preach the gospel in the tahitian language. that doesn't mean that poof! i'm magically going to be fluent. but that does mean that there is someone out there that needs to hear this message from me, in tahitian. so then i was like OK FINE I'LL KEEP TRYING. it's getting better, little by little. i'm starting to understand some words that people say, but mostly it still just sounds like aaoaoooiiieeeuooowahheoooojalkjads! and i'm like yeah ok brain just turned off. it's so funny though because the people here keep telling me "oh yeah tahitian is easy, it's just like english!" and i'm like "i'm sorry, have you ever heard the english language before??" they're just so adorable sometimes, these tahitians.

other notable things of the week: i played with some puppies, ate mcdonalds for the first time here, saw a mouse in my house, got some more mosquito bites (seriously. kill me now.), went to a wedding for two of our investigators--oh yeah did i mention that NO ONE here is married? no one. unless they're members. everyone else just lives together and calls the other person their husband or wife but they're just fake married as in no marriage certificate. so i think i will be going to many marriages during my mission. at least i hope so. and i ate a lot of food this week. i think people are really surprised by the quantity of food my body can hold. at one of the investigator's houses where we were eating, they were all like whoa you can eat so much more than the other american sisters! and i'm like yeah, white girl knows how to throw it down. and that's when i tried to explain to them that i am a fat person in a skinny person's body. but i have the mild impression that by the end of my mission, i will probably be a fat person in a fat person's body. but the food is soooooo gooooooooooood. mom, you would be totally freaked out by it though. lots of raw fish. like the two most popular dishes here are all raw fish. but it's sooooo good and i want to eat it all daaaaaaaaaay.

ok ok ok. i do have one fairly big thing to report. but i wanted to save it for the end because it makes me sad. the past two days have been particularly weird because my trainer got sent home?? actually i shouldn't put that in a question mark, because it's actually a statement. on saturday night s. terooatea was crying up a storm and me and s. harline (other american) were like "aah what's wrong?!!" but tahitians don't talk about feelings ever (seriosuly, i've never felt so sensitive in my life) so she wouldn't tell us but the next morning she was like "k we're going to president's house" and we were like ooooooook....and then we went and they talked and president came out and was like "oh hey you two go do whatever you're supposed to do today and i'll let you know what's happening later." and was like ooooook....? so then s. harline and i just get in the car and we look at each other and kind of start hysterically laughing, but that kind of laughing where you have to laugh to stop yourself from hyperventilating and going into the fetal position. but really, in one sense it was kind of funny. two american greenies trying to hold down the fort in three different wards! ha! seriously. ridiculous. but, we definitely were blessed yesterday to be able to have made it through the whole day without any disaster or mishap. it was hard through because s. harline is not confident at all in her french and doesn't really take the reigns very well, so i was like welp ok let's do this. but in the end, it was ok. it was good for me i think to have to step up to the plate to get things done. trial by fire i guess. anyway, s. terooatea came back and packed up her stuff and told us she was going home. it was really sad. i have no idea what happened, all i know is that she was a great example for me and i have only good things to say about the 2 weeks i spent with her. i admire her a lot for her courage. now s. harline and i are by ourselves, and we still have no idea what's going on. hopefully we'll be clued in on that soon...in the meantime, at least it's pday! we're going to carrefour later, which is like the french walmart. actually, it's this magical and evil place that you go to with every intention of buying good groceries but end up coming out with a 12 pack of coke, chocolate, and no self-respect. hopefully i'll be able to be more of a grown up this week.

anyway, this is sooooooooooo loooooooooong. but yeah. i'm doing well, and hope everything is going well back home! you are in my thoughts and prayers. love!

love,
soeur hansen

p.s. pictures are as follows:

--at the birthday party of one of our investigator's daughters
--at our investigators' wedding
--puppies!
--i got a legit coconut from one of my investigators
--view from my apartment, that's moorea

september 19, 2011

hiiiiiiiiii everyone,

oooh you know, just sitting here NOT IN AMERICA writing my email. that's right everyone, my mission was NOT in fact to the MTC. i'm in TAHITI!! travels and everything went smoothly, except i was a little congested so it kind of felt like my eyeballs were going to pop out of my head during some parts of the flight. and despite my legitimate phobia of flying over the ocean, i made it safe and sound. it's really surreal flying over the ocean, by the way. it kind of looks like you're upside down because EVERYTHING is blue. anyway, i pretty much had to sign a contract with my own blood and promise my first born (sorry mom, no grandkid fun for you) just to get my luggage over here though. whew. but. the point is. i am here. it is awesome. in order to give you a better image of tahiti, i would like you to imagine in your mind the most beautiful place you've ever seen. then, multiply that by approximately...A BAJILLION. and then, you might understand the beauty of this place. seriously. my companion is probably tired of me gasping audibly and oohing and aaahing over everything. and the stars are different here too! i tried looking for the big dipper and then i was like oh wait. i'm below the equator. WEIRD.

anyway, my first morning here i was awoken by the sounds of roosters crowing. they were just cockadoodlin' it up all over the place. yeah. there are chickens and roosters everywhere here. all over. and dogs. and the dogs are freaking disgusting. they're like some canine zombie army that roam the streets. bleh. sooo i try to avoid them at all cost so i don't get zombiefied too. and/or lose my hair and get rabies or things like that. ANYWAY. my mission pres and his wife are cool and nice. i don't actually remember anything that i said to them the first night because i was suuuper out of it. i do remember trying to speak tahitian to them but i dont' remember what i said. probably something insulting. so i'm in my first area on the island of tahiti, near the city faaa (yes, that is the actual name of the city, my keyboard did not break or stutter). i got put in a trio with one tahitian sister who is my trainer, and another american sister that got here about two months ago. both are very nice and very patient, and i have been able to learn a lot from both. we're starting to get to know each other a little bit better and break the ice so meals and car rides aren't totally silent anymore. ha! oh yeah. we're not on bikes, we have a car. guess who's gonna get SUPER FAT? THIS GIRL. i actually really hate the car. because the roads here are INSANE and windy and uppy-downy and there are speed bumps every 20 feet and guess who gets car sick super easily? THIS GIRL. so i feel like i want to barf about 100% of the time, and then i do about 50% of the time. oh yeah, did i mention that i've been barfing like somebody committed me to it this week? it's been really cute. NOT. i dont' know what the deal is, but i've been pretty sick lately. it's not the food or the water. but i'm feeling better the past few days, so hopefully it's just some weird "hi i'm your body and i hate living in tahiti" thing that i'll get over. by the way i'm terrified to try and drive here because i think evreyone takes speed or meth or some kind of drug before they go on the road. seriously. i get scared.

let's see.. i have like a bjillion things to say but i can't organize my brain. the other day we accidently locked ourselves out of our house so i won the love and adoration of my companions by climbing up through the teeny little bathroom window so i could open the door. in retrospect, i'm not quite sure how i fit, because it's a pretty small window and it was really high. carried by the spirit or something, i guess. haa oh yeah, i met one of the ward members (the ward mission leader, actually) and he was like "hey soeur, did you take a picture the day you got here? you know, like of yourself?" and i was like "...no..." and he was like "oh you defintiely should. that way, you can see and compare how fat you get on your mission." HAHAHAHA AND THEN I PUNCHED HIM IN THE FACE!! not. i just laughed. little did he know, my stomach's recent rebellion has prevented my from gaining weight despite the MASSIVE PORTIONS OF FOOD people giv eyou here. it's soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo goooooooooooooooooood though. even when i was barfing i still wanted to eat because it's just so delicious. the fish, the fruit. oh my gosh the fruit. so good. and i had my first steak-frites the other day, which is basically just a huge slab of meat served with fries and this really incredible sauce. gaah! so good! but everything here is really really expensive so it kind of sucks. but still so pleasing to my palate.

anyhoo, we have quite a few investigators right now so we stay pretty busy, so it's good. yesterday we went tracting fo rthe first time and it was actually way fun! well, maybe not fun. but it was good and we were able to talk to some people and set up some lessons. the people here are all super nice so i wasn't afraid of getting spit on or anything. we have two people that we're teaching right now that only speak tahitian, and they're really old. and i don't understand anything they're saying. i taught my first lesson in tahitian the other day, and i felt good about what i was saying but i had NO IDEA what the heck the lady was saying back to me so i just kept looking at my companion, and she'd nod to me to say yeah go ahead, ahha. she's a saint, my companion. anyway, the lady is really cute but she talks like she has a mouthful of food that's she's chewing with no teeth. and thens ometimes she'll laugh and cover her face with her hands and she just looks so cute that i start laughing too so she thinks that i understand by i'm like NOPE FOOLED YOU I STILL I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON! haha! it's frustrating. but i know it will get better. i just have to keep trying.

anyway, my companion is waiting to use the computer so i think i'll wrap this up. i forgot my camera cord but i will remember to bring it next week so i can send pictures! oh yeah, one more thing: people don't use toilet seats here! it took me a few days to realize that. every time i would go into the bathroom at our house, the toilet seat would be up. and i would be like what the heck? is there secretly a man living here? is one of my COMPANIONS secretly a man? who knows. so i asked my american companion about it and she was like yeah they just don't use toilet seats. some places don't even have them when you go. so that was interesting. anyway, on that note i guess i'll end. i'm happy to be here. adjusting has been interesting, but it's been good and the people here are very warm and generous. i love you all and hope everything is going well!

love,
soeur hansen