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
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
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
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
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
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
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
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