April 16, 2012

oh haaayyyyy everyone,

 

pday has come again, last week went by super fast. i'm trying to think about what exciting/new things that i can report to you all. i think heavenly father had pity on me this past week, because there were no strange creatures in our house and i was able to regain a little bit of the sanity that i lost previously. our house continues to be potentially haunted however, weird noises come from our ceiling only at night when we go to bed. which is super sketchy. but we made the elders come over and check it out and they only found a couple rats so i just took that as an explanation and left it at that. i don't really want to explore any further. actually it was pretty funny because the elder who went up into the roof saw these cardboard boxes and was CONVINCED that it was Jumanji (google that if you don't know what i'm talking about and then GO HAVE A CHILDHOOD FOR GOODNESS SAKES). so he like did everything possible to see what was in the boxes, which turned out to be totally empty. but it was a fun time of reminiscing about how much we loved the movie jumanji and about what kind of things would come out of it if we were to play it here in tahiti. maybe centipedes and giant pregnant spiders and jehovah's witnesses. oh my gosh guys, my life IS jumanji!!

 

anyway, last week we did A LOT of contacting, going from house to house trying to find new investigators. on one hand, it's cool because things change about every 10 minutes. on the other hand, it's not that cool because things change every 10 minutes because people constantly reject you. but we found some potentials i think, we're going to go back this week and bother them again. aaah bothering people. such an awesome pasttime. actually one day when we were contacting, we were looking for this reference that a lady in our ward gave us--just the name and the general area in which the person lives--no number, no address (awesome). anyway, we were looking for this person and i was like ok let's stop at this house and ask the people if they know who it is. so we stopped and we're talking to this lady, striking up conversation and what not--she has no idea who the person is that we're looking for, which was too bad. but i was like welp lady, have you ever talked to the missionaries before? and she was like welp soeur hansen, i AM a member. or at least she was. she's been inactive for like 10 years and has 3 kids and her "husband" (everyone here calls their spouse their husband or wife even though NO ONE is married) isn't a member. so i was like WELP LADY, WE GONNA SAAAVE YOU! not really. i just said that in my head. but we got her number and proposed a family home evening with her. she was kinda like ehhh about it, but as i said before, we are determined to bother people until they know the gospel is true. in all seriousness though, i really don't think it was a coincidence or an accident that we stopped at her house first and got to talk to her. there is potential there.

 

other less pleasant contacting experiences happened this week, for example, i had my first face to face encounter with a straight up racist. seriously. i've never felt so much pure hatred coming from a person directed right at me. i think my eyebrows got singed. we stopped at this lady's house and she was like suuuper nice and welcomed us in and we sat down and started talking and we kind of launch into the missionary stuff and all the sudden it's like BAM! and she starts yelling about how my people (white people) have destroyed her country and her culture and how all the evil in the world comes from white people and we ruined everything. and then she's like you know what you need little hansen (literally, she called me little hansen throughout this whole discussion) is someone like THIS (pointing to my companion soeur chapman), someone PURE and GOOD to come to YOUR country and preach to YOU. and i was like hm. ok. welp good thing god loves all of his children and is no respecter of persons. and then she was like yeah GOD is no respecter of persons but WE need to get white people outta here. yikes. it was a rather uncomfortable situation. makes for a good story in the email though, right? right.

 

aaaanyway, we have two baptisms this week! on saturday, olga and her daughter manihiki will be taking the plunge and become members of da churrrch! hooray! pretty excited and happy about this. and we set up a time to start the lessons with her husband this week, who by the way, came to church for the first time yesterday. yessssssssssssss. anyway. i'm gonna wrap this up. just know that miracles are happening and God is answering ouur prayers. love you all!!

 

love,

little hansen

 

heh heh

april 9, 2012

hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii everyone,

 

as you might have surmised (is that a word in english? am i inventing things? my brain gets confused sometimes.) from the subject of this email, this week was full of challenges for my little missionary mind. it seems like all forces, human and nature, were against us this week. so many lessons fell through (which is doubly discouraging when you're on a bike because you pedal your little heart out to get all the way to the other end of you sector for this lesson that you're excited about and prepared for, and then you get there and either they're not there, or they tell you they can't do a lesson that day. guhhhh lessons in patience and humility...), so many people didn't want to listen to us, so many unexpected bumps in the road (this may be interpreted metaphorically as well as literally), and SO MANY UNINVITED CREATURES IN OUR HOUSE.

 

seriously, can i just tell you about THE MOST horrifying and traumatizing experience of my life thus far? i think that really though, this might be on my top 5 list. so one night, i was dutifully folding my laundry, trying to be all organized and cleanly and stuff, and out of the corner of my eye i see a black thing on our white ceiling. i look up. HUGE SPIDER. HUGE. obviously screaming ensues. soeur chapman, who was getting ready to take a shower, comes out and is like soeur hansen what's your problem and then i whimper out something incomprehensible while pointing to the ceiling, and she's like sigh. ok i'm coming back in fifteen minutes. can you handle that? (i shake my head no. she ignores me and shuts the bathroom door. what a mean companion. not really, i really do love her.) anyway, so she goes back into the bathroom and shuts the door, and THROUGH THE BATHROOM DOOR tells me: "soeur hansen?" me: whimper! soeur chapman: "soeurhansen, be careful, because that spider is pregnant and if you mess with her she'll protect her babies." WHAT??!!!! anyway, so i'm immobilized by fear watching this spider on the ceiling (directly above my bed, mind you), and then suddenly it starts to move. and pulsate. and my horror deepens. and then i see LITTLE BABY SPIDERS START POURING OUT OF HER FROM THE CEILING. THIS SPIDER WAS GIVING BIRTH TO OTHER SPIDERS IN OUR HOUSE. IN MY ROOM. ABOVE MY BED. WHERE I SLEEP. obviously my screaming increased in intensity and pitch, and was no longer in french but in english. then our neighbor was like "what the heck is happening?!!" and starts yelling at me in tahitian. and obviously i do not understand tahitian, nor does she understand english. so we're panicking together all the while this spider is creating a nursery on my pillow. anyway, to make this horrifying story short, our neighbor (who is a member by the way) came and got the spider and took it away and i enacted a baby spider massacre with the bug spray. seriously. trauma.

 

also our house might be haunted because weird noises happen at night.

 

other than that, things are going ok. some weeks are hard, but i have high hopes for this week. soeur chapman (who yes, is a tahitian) and i are working hard trying to get members involved in missionary work and we have goals to find lots of new investigators this week. sometimes when you feel like the majority of your investigators are people who just want to talk about jesus and not actually do anything about it, it gets a little discouraging. but we're not giving up, duh. we've got work to do and i know tthat the Lord is on our side, even when it seems like no one else is. i hope you enjoyed my spider story. because I DIDN'T. maybe in 5 years i will. anyway, i gotta go but i love you all!!

 

love,

soeur hansen

April 2, 2012

hi everyone!!

 

good news. i believe that i have found a reliable source of internet, and luckily enouugh it's right next door! we asked our mission president for permission to use a member's computer because the internet here is hard to come by and he said yes! so hopefully emails will be more consistent now.

 

anyway, i would like to tell you all a story now about how i am brave and awesome. so here in tahiti there are things called "cent-pieds". which basically is a centipede. but i can tell you right now that these centipedes are not like anything that exists in the united states, seeing as how THEY ARE AS LONG AS MY HAND AND ARE THE MOST TERRIFYING THINGS I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE. seriously. grown men are scared of them and squeal like girls when they see them. anyway, so we found one in our yard today as we were cleaning (actually soeur chapman found it and i heard her screaming). so we were like aaahhh what do we do we can't leave it because it'll come into our house! (did i mention that they have really long stingers that hurt really really bad if they sting you??) so here's what i did. i got a sharp stick. i mentally prepared myself to potentially die. and i said a prayer that was basically "please don't let this thing touch me." AND I KILLED IT!!!! let's talk about how even after i cut it's head off IT WAS STILL MOVING. i'm not talking about a little twitching, i'm talking about ITS HEAD AND THE REST OF ITS BODY WERE STILL CRAWLING AROUND TRYING TO FIND EACH OTHER. i'm not even exaggerating here. soeur chapman and i stood there for about 5 minutes just watching in horror as its body crawled around looking for its head. than soeur chapman was like "dude we just gotta burn it..." (in french). so we did. and it was again, horrifying. but the point is, i killed it and i was proud of myself. seriously. horrifying. things like that should not exist.

 

also in other news, apparently it's spider season because we've found several spiders in our house THAT ARE AS BIG AS MY HAAANDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am scared of them. soeur chapman laughs at me. because every time i see one i scream and freak out, obviously. and she's like "you know what soeur hansen, i think your screaming scares me more than the spiders." WHATEVER IT'S NOT NATURAL FOR THEM TO BE THAT BIG!!

 

anyway. enough about scary creatures. things here are awesome. MIRACLES ARE HAPPENING HERE, PEOPLE. miracles. we have two baptismal dates fixed--a mom named olga and her daughter manihiki (who is 10). and at first, olga's husband was like not into it at all but we have been praying and fasting and working hard to try and soften his heart, and now he's come to a couple family home evenings and has come to olga's lessons too. and he told us last time that he's ready to start taking the lessons and he just wants to tell his parents before really jumping in. but he's super interested now and ready to follow his wife and children. he even told olga that he wants them to get sealed! gaaah!!! i love eternal famblieeeeeeees!! so awesome. definitely have seen how our prayers have been answered and how God prepares the way for his work to be accomplished. so happy! i love this family and can't wait to see what the future holds for them.

 

other than that, we have a lot of potential for people to get baptised, but most of the things that are holding them back is marriage. people aren't really into marriage here. but we're working hard and we've been doing a lot of door-to-door to try and find new investigators. that can get pretty discouraging because not a lot of people accept us, but every once in a while there's someone who wants to listen to us. and who knows whatt could happen. but soeur chapman is such a champ and i love being her companion. soeur teiho finished last week so now we're back to two in the companionship. things are going well and we've set a lot of goals for our sector and for our companionship. i'm excited to see what miracles are waiting for us in the months to come.

 

in other news, i've got the craziest farmer's tan ever and people consistently tell me how fat i've gotten. apparently even biking around all day doesn't stop the raging weight gain. whatever. at least we have food to eat.

 

oh man can we talk about how AWESOME conference was?? seriously. i never wanted it to end. loved every second of it. i got to watch two sessions in english and that was the highlight of my LIFE. it's fine to watch it in french, but i get so much more out of it when it's in english. can't wait for the liahona to come out next month so i can read all the talks again.

 

anyway, i gotta wrap this up. i love you alll!!!

 

love,

soeur hansen

 

p.s. remember how this time last year i opened up my mission call, and now i'm actually HERE serving my mission? weird! also, i've officially passed the halfway mark. time goes by so fast!

March 19, 2012

hey everyone! im currently at an extremely overpriced internet cafe writing on a french keyboard so this is going to be short and sweet and possibly illegible. ive decided to send pictures instead of writing a lot. but things in general are going really well! we have 3 potential baptisms which is great and my co,panions are cool. were just loving life right now. my birthday was lovely except for the torrents of rain in the morning, but i ate my weight in cake and was a happy girl for my first and only birthday in tahiti. 

sorry this is so so short but this cafe is totally a scam so i gotta hurry. hopefully the pictures i thought i was sending are actually it: me and my companions and me with a pineapple. anyway i looooooove yoooooou!!!

March 5, 2012

hi everyone,

let's talk about how my fiery raging hate for missionary choir has resurfaced and is now upped a level, because now i have to get up early and take a boat across the ocean to go be annoyed for three hours at choir practice, and then waste my pday having no car in the city because we have to wait for the next boat back which isn't for another 2 hours. guhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. whatever. our last concert is next sunday, and then it will be over and i will SING HALLELUJAH. ok ok. missionary choir is ok. the concerts are cool and people really like them, and i will admit that we have seen success in finding new investigators. so yes, it's a good thing. BUT THE PRACTICES ARE THE WORST EVER AND MAKE ME WANT TO PUNCH MYSELF REPEATEDLY IN THE FACE. ok i'm done now. just needed to get that out of my system. the point is, i'm in an internet cafe right now in Papeete. internet cafes are expensive, apparently. 

let's talk about something else. like my new area and my newbie companion. i will clarify on my companion situation, seeing as there was a bit of confusion expressed by readers. my old companion at Faaa, Soeur Teheiura (pronounced "tay-hey-oo-rah") stayed there--i was the only one that moved. and at moorea for the first week, i was with soeur teiho (pronounced "tay-show"--yeah don't try to understand how that works, it makes no phonetic sense.) then my baby, soeur chapman (from here, even though she has an american name) came. so now it's me, soeur teiho, and soeur chapman. soeur teiho finishes in the end of march, so then afterwards it'll just be me and soeur chapman. this situation is interesting, because soeur teiho is the senior companion, and i'm supposed to be the trainer. the liiiittle problem is that soeur teiho is kind of a...how do i put this...welp, she REALLY likes to be in charge. sooo...yeah. it has been an interesting week and will probably continue to be an interesting month. it's just a little frustrating, but i'm doing my best to be patient and humble. both of those virtues seem to be the most painful to acquire. soeur chapman is already a superstar missionary though--she's a trooper and really enthusiastic and hard-working. i feel like SHE is going to train ME, haha. 

aside from that though, this week has been pretty good. we're still trying to boost the sector, but we're seeing little by little the fruits of our labors. we did a LOT of door to door this week, which is good but also really not the most result-yielding. our plan for this week is to really get our members involved. that was one of the really awesome things about Faaa--the members in our wards were super into missionary work and did a lot to help us find new investigators. it works so much better when the members help us, because there's an automatic support system there. i'm not saying that door-to-door isn't good, but member references are better. anyway, so we've got some stuff afoot to get them going and motivated. i have a feeling it's going to be like a diesel engine though--maybe take a while to get started, but once it's going it should be good. there is a lot of potential here in the investigators that we have now--one of the main things that's blocking most of them is marriage--they can't get baptized if they're living together unmarried. so we've been working with that a lot. 

so we are teaching this guy named coco. coco has some big word of wisdom problems, but he really wants to change. this past week we had a good experience with him--one of our lessons fell through, so we were biking to go see a plan B lesson, and we see coco walking down the side of the road, with a glass of wine in his hand. he sees us, then he like turns around and puts his back to us. and i'm like yeah dude i see you, we're not gonna pretend that you're not there, so i called out to him and i was like "coco! what's up man? how are you!" and he like turned around and started laughing like "ok you caught me" and looked down at his wine, then threw it on the ground and was like "ok let's go, i need a lesson." haha. so we went and did a lesson with him and committed him to come to church on sunday and he said he would. he didn't end up coming because he got drunk instead, but i'm not giving up on this guy. i know he can change. he just needs a lot of support, so we made plans to stop by and see him, even for just a couple minutes, every day this week. 

ah! i had my first (and second...and definitely not the last) experience biking in the pouring rain this week. i have now learned the art (and importance) of packing my stuff in a plastic bag and THEN putting it in my backpack, so that when it rains, my stuff doesn't get all wet. only my hymnbook has suffered some battle wounds so far--everything else is intact. the thing about biking in tropical rain--it's ok when you're biking because you're so dang hot that it's actually kind of refreshing. it's just after the freak 15 minute rainstorm for the day, you're soaked for the rest of the day because nothing dries in the humidity. i feel like i'm going to be in various stages of wetness for the rest of my mission, be it from rain or sweat or some gross combination of the two. but whatever. onward, ever onward. 

have i mentioned how AWESOME the pineapples are here? seriously. i've never tasted such good pineapple. it's all i want to eat. and there's a guy in our ward that works in the pineapple fields or something and gives us pineapple whenever we ask. which is also awesome. very happy about this. i'm trying to think of what else i can tell you. OH! OHHH! i put my feet in tahitian ocean water for the first time ever on friday. (we are allowed to do this, stop freaking out. we just can't go swimming, feet dipping is allowed.) our DMP here took us out to eat at the Hilton resort before our district meeting on friday, and it's right on the beach. i PROMISE to send pictures next week--i didn't think that we would be doing emails here on the main island, so i didn't bring my camera cord. but seriously, it was so beautiful. white sand, turquoise water. dreamy. 

anyway. things are going good. i was reflecting on some things this week, and i came to the realization that most of the frustrations and problems i encounter on my mission are the direct result of my lack of patience--with myself, with our investigators, with God's plan for me. i think to myself sometimes, "man i am REALLY trying my best to teach by the spirit, to teach according to the investigator's needs, to be obedient...etc., why is nothing happening yet?!" and then i start to think what am i doing wrong? and it's this whole vicious cycle. but i realized that i really need to be more patient--success isn't necessarily a reward for being good. it comes in the Lord's time, as all things do. so lately i've been trying to be better about placing my trust and confidence in the Lord and accepting His will in all things. guess what? it's hard! haaa! but, i know he keeps his promises. so, as i said before--onward. that's the motto in our companionship--"arohi!" (ah-row-hee!) which is basically a verbal fist pump in the air to say--yeah let's DO this!! so i say to you all: AROHI! love you alll.

love,
soeur hansen

February 27, 2012

hey everyone!

 

i gotta write fast because there's no time but i have BIG NEWS.

 

first of all--guess where i am?

 

NOT IN FAAA!!! i got transferred last thursday (i found out wednesday morning that i was getting moved--transfers here come like a theif in the night, lemme tell ya). anyway, i'm now currently serving on the island of MOOREA. guys. i realized when i got here that i'd been in the total ghetto for the past six months. MOOREA IS PARADISE. it's so beautiful. our house is literally 30 seconds from the beach. there are crabs in my front yard. seriously, it's so beautiful.

 

so now that i'm on moorea, this means a couple of things. first of all, no more car. i'm now officially a bike missionary. let's talk about the bike situation. first of all, since i've been in the car for the past sixth months, this means that i have become a total fatty. which means that on the bike, WOOF. so hard. the other day, my companion (all the while on her bike), literally starting pushing me up the hill on my bike, haha. i was getting there, just very slowly. guhhh the hills here...they kill. but i'm adapting to the bike. actually i really like it better than the car. it's kind of surreal sometimes, being on a bike. and i feel like a total dweeb with my helmet, but whatever I'M OBEDIENT SO I WEAR IT. also. it's really REALLY hot. i am a sweaty, disgusting mess ALL OF THE TIME. people laugh at me because my face gets so red. and my hair. oh my hair. it's either plastered to my skull from sweat, or all over the place because of the wind. guys, i'm a mess. also makeup has become the stupidest thing ever, so i'm not even messing with that anymore. get ready for photos chock fulla ugly coming next week maybe! although now that i'm here, the internet is less of a surety. at faaa we just went to the chapel, but here it's a little more complicated. so i guess don't worry if you don't hear from me one week. but i'm gonna do my best to keep the emails coming.

 

let's see what else...oh yeah the water here is non-potable. go figure the place where i want water the most is the place where i can't get it out of the faucet. also going to adapt to that. and the mosquitoes here are a bajillion times worse. but again, adapting. anothing thing about this sector is that...well, the sisters here before kind of totally burned it. when i came in on thursday, we had no fixed lessons and no progressing investigators (which basically means that there aren't people that we're teaching that are moving forward). basically what i'm saying is that we're going to have to work our butts off (hopefully literally because man my skirts are getting tight) to get some investigators and lessons. this sector needs soooooooooo much work. and it's kind of a shock to come into it, because we had so many investigators and lessons and potential at faaa...but, the other day, i just had this really strong sense of peaceful assurance. i had this thought--"just be patient and work hard. it's not always going to be like this." my companion and i plan on fasting twice a week, going around to commit members to help us, and to recontact ALL of the former investigators in our area book to try and boost our sector. yeah, it's kind of overwhelming, especially since our area is HUGE--22 kilometers (which i think, according to my high school cross country reference, is about 17 miles?), but i know that if we're obedient and faithful, God is going to help us have success in this area.

 

really though, the members here have already made me feel so welcome. today i learned how to make baskets out of palm tree leaves. totally legit. and the pineapple here is world-renowned. and THERE'S A JUICE FACTORY DOWN THE STREET FROM OUR HOUSE. free testing. next pday? i think yes. we only have one ward that we're in charge of, so i feel like i'm going to get to know everyone a lot better than at faaa, where we had three wards. funnily enough though, i kinda miss good ol' faaa. i was pretty sad to say goodbye to some of our investigators and members there, especially since there are some that have made such good progress. but i know that i'm going to love it here. even if i'm a sweaty gross disgusting mess all the time.

 

oh yeah. i forgot to say the other really important thing...i'm going to be a trainer for the new sister missionary coming in. what?! i'm gonna be a mom! i'm kind of terrified. like i have to teach this kid all about how to be a missionary, and i've only been here for 6 months. I don't even know how to be a missionary yet, it feels like. but, i'm gonna try my best to be a good trainer for her...is this what it feels like to be a parent? terrified that you're going to ruin your child's life? i'm kind of exaggerating. but not really. hopefully it'll be good!

 

anyway, i gotta wrap this up. people are waiting for me, and we're going to go pick taro (purple potato thing) from their garden and then go play tennis. oh yeah did i mention that i already have tan lines? oooooh yeah. i'mma be black by the end of my mission. i love you all!

 

love,

soeur hansen