dearest everyone,
aaah another pday has arrived. the weeks seem
to be going by even faster lately! this week was pretty good, but very tiring.
we did A LOT of walking and tracting and contacting. i feel like...i have
really learned what it is to STINK at the end of the day. like when you start
to smell yourself, that really means that you smell BAD. and when it's so hot
and you're in the sun all day and biking and walking and sweating with a heavy
backpack...it's just a recipe for rankness. i apologize for this overshare, but
on the bright side, i have really learned to appreciate showers and
antibacterial soap. not that i didn't appreciate them before, but now it's like
the best thing ever invented.
ANYWAY. yes. this week we did a lot of
walking. up a lot of hills. it was kind of like adventure week, because we
discovered some hidden corners of our sector that turned out to be like HUGE
NEIGHBORHOODS that we had no idea existed. i think we probably had no idea they
existed because they're all like way up in the valley mountainous area and
they're hard to get to. but we hiked up our skirts (not too high, mind you!)
and got down to business to scope out the undiscovered territory. we found some
people, we got rejected by a lot of people, and a lot of people pretended not
to be home when we passed by their house. that's always the cutest--when you
SEE people in the house, you call out "bonjour!", and then they go
run and hide. seriously. people are funny sometimes. soeur chapman and i just
laugh, because we're like man are we really that scary? actually, in light of
the previous paragraph i wrote, maybe it's just because we smell bad. hm. never
considered that one before.
continuing on the theme of big hills and long
hikes, this one day we had a lesson up in the mountains. now normally, we have
a member drive us up to the house because it's a long way up and pretty much impossible
to get their on a bike. but this particular day, there was no one available to
take us. so i was like welp, guess we're going on foot then. so we dropped off
our bikes at a member's house at the bottom of the hill, and started the long
walk up. and up. and up up up upppppppppppp. about a half hour later we arrive
at our investigator's house to find...WHOOPS THEY'RE NOT THERE! ahhh so cute.
as we walked away, i was like man. what's up with that? but then i was like no
don't murmur. there's got to be a reason for this or something. so we're
walking away, and this guy calls out to us--soeurs! soeurs! come over here and
we'll talk about heavenly father! actually we already knew who the guy was,
because we usually see him stumbling drunkenly (is that a word?) in the street.
and at first i was like ohmaaaannn not THAT guy! but then i was like ok. he's a
child of God too. so we sat and talked with him for a bit and shared a little
message and invited him to come to church on sunday. and during the time we were
talking to him, bam! our investigators next door who weren't there before drive
up in their car. weeeeee! so our long hike wasn't all for nothing. and we had a
really good lesson with our mamie investigator. when we presented her with the
book of mormon, she was like "oh yay! that's actually just what i
wanted!" and i was like "oh yay! i love it when investigators say
things like that!" (in my head, obviously.) so that was kind of a cool
experience where the little voice in my head was like, "see, amy? i told
you not to murmur, because there was a plan here aaaaalll along." boom
bam.
there was another experience that stands out
in my mind from this week that confirmed to me that God's hand is in this work.
we had already planned out our friday on thursday night, and we hadn't planned
to go see this couple that we're teaching, noelline and marama (the miracle
couple). but friday morning i woke up with the thought, hey maybe we should go
see them today. and it kind of just persisted in my brain. so i was like ok
we're gonna change the plan a bit and work in a time to drop by and visit them.
and when we did, we ride up to their gate and call them and we're like
"hiiii are you home?" (yes) "ok well we're right outside your
house!" (huh? oh! ok!) and we go in and chat for a bit and eventually
noelline tells us, "you know, today has not been a good day. and earlier i
was in a bad place and i thought to myself, guhh i'm just gonna give up. quit
the missionary lessons, quit trying. because i was fed up! and i said a prayer
and i was like God? if you give me a sign that i should keep going, i will. but
if not, i'm quitting this. and then i went back inside to make lunch and not
long after, i get a phone call--it's you two, right outside our house. if
that's not an answer, i don't know what is." i believe it was thomas s.
monson who talked about how one of the best feelings he ever feels is to get a
prompting, follow it, and find out that it was the answers to someone's prayer.
i can confirm that wholeheartedly. in that moment, i was really grateful for
the privilege of being an instrument in the Lord's hands. i love that feeling.
so on that high note, i'm gonna wrap this up.
i included two photos in this email (you guys are so spoiledddd)--one is of
what you might have thought was a small horse but is in reality a giant dog
that we passed by one day. (also, aren't my chaco sandals so awesomely bad? i
feel like a transformer every time i wear them and i love it.) the other
picture is of us with one of the members in our ward--we ate at their house on
the fourth of july and i was like "man it's my country's independence day
today!" and talked about what we do to celebrate and stuff, and they were
like "welp we don't have any fireworks, but our son knows how to FIRE DANCE!!!"
so we got our own personal fire dancing show where he threw around a flaming
baton. it was so legit. and i was proud to be an american celebrating
independence tahitian style.
i hope you all have a lovely week and remember
that i love you and miss you!
love,
soeur hansen
