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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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!
