january 30, 2013

amy is home today, y'all!! i'm signing off! kiss kiss amy!

-alison

january 21, 2013

jan. 21

t-minus 8 days, everyone.

This week was good. we had some good lessons and found a couple new investigators, so that's good. i'm trying to like...set up a bunch of stuff so that soeur cook won't be like left out to dry when she has to show a new companion the sector. We might have a surprise baptism on Saturday...we're just waiting for the parents' ok and then it's all systems go, which would be AWESOME. it's been really rainy, so i'm hoping the weather will be nice before I leave. ummmmm...this is the last week of my mission. WEIRD. i don't know what else to say. everybody wants to feed me more than normal before i leave. 

welp, i really don't have too much to say. because really, i kind of just want to save all the cool stories and stuff for when i'm going to SEE YOU and be able to tell you face to face!! weeee!! have a good week, errbody! 

love,

soeur hansen

p.s. last week when we went with the sister, this little kid's case just happened to be next to me in the car. we couldn't resist taking a picture. 

january 14, 2013

herroooo

we just got back from a little outing to a botanical garden. it was cool except it started raining about halfway through and we got soaked. let's talk about something sad/something that made me mad (yeah i still get mad sometimes even though i'm a missionary). so i had asked my mission president if on my last day before leaving i could go on a tour of the island and he was like yeah ok and i was like yaaay happy. then this week in our interviews he was like you know, i changed my mind. i don't think it would be a good idea  for you to do that, so you can forget about it. and i was like uhhhhh whaaa?? and i was sad. aaand kind of mad. so anyway, the sister that took us to the gardens today was asking us about that and i told her that i couldn't go anymore, and then soeur cook and i were just joking around with her like "well you know if you want to kidnap us or whatever, you could just force us to go on the tour of the island..." ALL IN JEST. but i guess she thought it was a good idea and whoosh! off she drove and i was like aaah where are we going?! so then we were like uhh...we would LOVE to do the tour of the island buuuuut we feel too guilty soo can we go back now? so then we went to eat at mcdonalds and everything was fine. haha! i was sorely tempted though. i just wanna see the whole island! baah. oh well. someday...

anyway. THIS WEEK WE HAD A BAPTISM AND IT WAS AWESOME! loved it. it was a little boy named vaireva. his mom is an excommunicated member and his dad is not a member, but the baptism was great and everyone was really touched. the dad even cried. and OK FINE i cried too. i've turned into a big fat baby lately and it's actually kind of funny. 

welp guys. let's just get it out there. i have two weeks left AND IT IS WEIRD. soeur cook has started keeping a tally of how many people ask me about leaving a day. saturday's count was 13. and i have a feeling it's going to go up exponentially. and people wanting to feed me massive amounts of food is also going up exponentially. so there goes my plans to try and lose weight before i came home. haa what was i thinking?! foolish. 

ok well soeur cook is waiting for the computer and i'm gonna see y'all in 2 weeks anyway, so i'm gonna cut this short. love you!!!

love,

soeur hansen

january 14, 2013

herroooo

we just got back from a little outing to a botanical garden. it was cool except it started raining about halfway through and we got soaked. let's talk about something sad/something that made me mad (yeah i still get mad sometimes even though i'm a missionary). so i had asked my mission president if on my last day before leaving i could go on a tour of the island and he was like yeah ok and i was like yaaay happy. then this week in our interviews he was like you know, i changed my mind. i don't think it would be a good idea  for you to do that, so you can forget about it. and i was like uhhhhh whaaa?? and i was sad. aaand kind of mad. so anyway, the sister that took us to the gardens today was asking us about that and i told her that i couldn't go anymore, and then soeur cook and i were just joking around with her like "well you know if you want to kidnap us or whatever, you could just force us to go on the tour of the island..." ALL IN JEST. but i guess she thought it was a good idea and whoosh! off she drove and i was like aaah where are we going?! so then we were like uhh...we would LOVE to do the tour of the island buuuuut we feel too guilty soo can we go back now? so then we went to eat at mcdonalds and everything was fine. haha! i was sorely tempted though. i just wanna see the whole island! baah. oh well. someday...

anyway. THIS WEEK WE HAD A BAPTISM AND IT WAS AWESOME! loved it. it was a little boy named vaireva. his mom is an excommunicated member and his dad is not a member, but the baptism was great and everyone was really touched. the dad even cried. and OK FINE i cried too. i've turned into a big fat baby lately and it's actually kind of funny. 

welp guys. let's just get it out there. i have two weeks left AND IT IS WEIRD. soeur cook has started keeping a tally of how many people ask me about leaving a day. saturday's count was 13. and i have a feeling it's going to go up exponentially. and people wanting to feed me massive amounts of food is also going up exponentially. so there goes my plans to try and lose weight before i came home. haa what was i thinking?! foolish. 

ok well soeur cook is waiting for the computer and i'm gonna see y'all in 2 weeks anyway, so i'm gonna cut this short. love you!!!

love,

soeur hansen

january 7, 2013

ok guys. i just gotta put this out there: i love reading your emails but my enthusiasm for responding has dramatically decreased. PLEASE DON'T BE MAD AND STOP WRITING ME. 

this week was great! although january first we didn't have any lessons because all of our amis were kind of...indisposed i guess you could say, we went around and started committing our members to help us find new investigators. it actually worked out really well! we've been committing them to invite their friends over to the missionary dinner appointments and we can take advantage of that time to have a family home evening type activity. they have been pretty open to this idea and so far, so good! except for the first night, the members we committed were like yeah ok! and it was great because they actually did invite people, the only problem was that they didn't actually tell the people that they invited that WE were going to come too, so when we showed up, they were just like uhhhhhh WHY ARE MORMON MISSIONARIES HERE WHAT DID YOU GUYS GET US INTO! and it was just pretty awkward. but the other nights were really fun and we were able to show the people that we're normal and fun and like Jesus too! we're hoping that little by little, our members will become more involved and we'll be able to see the fruits. or more like soeur cook will be able to see the fruits. for now i'm just happy to plant i guess.

we had a cool experience this week--we fasted on saturday to find new amis and to soften the hearts of our investigators and BOOM we immediately saw results. we had a bunch of investigators come to church yesterday, and we got a reference! there was a girl who came to church on sunday with a family, and i was like hmmm i have definitely seen you before, and she was like yeah! i met you at the patu family's house in faaa! and i was like YES! THAT'S IT! so that's pretty cool because we got her number and stuff and we'll probably start up the lessons with her this week. hoooraaaaaaaaaaaay! 

let's seeeee...OH MAN. yesterday was my last fast and testimony meeting on the mission! it was so weird! obviously i was like ok i have to go up and bear my testimony, and i didn't really think it was going to affect me that much because come on, i bear my testimony every day, but i got up there and started talking and as soon as i was like "so this is my last testimony meeting as a missionary..." I JUST GOT REALLY EMOTIONAL! AND I WAS EMBARRASSED! hahaa. i didn't totally lose it, but it was hard not to cry. and i thought to myself, man if i can barely keep it together now, what am i going to be like at my homecoming?! get ready for waterworks, probably. 

anyway, i'm trying really hard to stay focused. there are little things that happen every day that remind me how short the time is, and then i kind of turn and look at soeur cook with really wide eyes and she's like NO! DON'T GET TRUNKY! I HAVE TO SQUEEZE EVERY BIT OF KNOWLEDGE POSSIBLE OUT OF YOU BEFORE YOU LEAVE!! and then we laugh. it is a very bittersweet experience. welp. i'm gonna go now. but i love you!

love,

soeur hansen

december 31, 2012

hiiiiiiiiiiiiii

guys! christmas was great! loved being able to skype with the fam, but it was weird to think that i'll be seeing all of you in a month....gaah!! after skype, we went to go eat with a family in one of our wards. it was tasty. then we went to deliver treats to our investigators and that was fun. then another family invited us to eat at 4. they are really really cool and had gotten a Wii for christmas and me and soeur cook were REALLY tempted to play, but we didn't. then we continued our deliveries (in the pouring rain, by the way) and got invited to eat with another family at 7. we ate a lot on christmas. it was great though! 

then the next day i got sick. and have been sick ever since. i don't know what the deal is. two weeks ago i got strep throat and it was terrible. and now i'm sick again! i think it's the flu--soeur cook diagnosed me with her missionary health guide as i was lying pathetically in bed. and then she read to me and told me church history stories, which was really nice. but i'm really tired of being sick!! i think my immune system is just shot and my body is trying to tell me to stop. but then i keep telling my body, no dude! you still got a month to go! hang in there buddy! or maybe God is just tired of hearing me complain about how fat i've gotten so He's like, you wanna lose weight? here's a bunch of illnesses to make you hate eating!! bam. be careful what you wish for.

anyway, so this week was interesting with the holidays and being sick, but we were able to have some pretty good lessons. we have this one investigator, vairea, who is AWESOME. she's getting baptized on february 19th, which i'm sad about because i'm going to miss it, but i'm happy that we get to teach her. she's already finished the book of mormon and is about halfway through the doctrine and covenants. and we were like whooaaaaa you are coooooool. she is just really excited about the gospel and we love going to have lessons with her because she makes us happy. 

welp ok. i'm gonna go now, but i hope y'all have just an awesomely magnificient new year's! drink some martinelli's and watch the ball drop! love you!

love,
soeur hansen

december 24, 2012

HELLOOOOO!! 

don't worry guys, i'm still alive. last monday we had our missionary christmas and it was awesome, but we didn't have time to do emails afterwards because we got back late. but it was great because we got to go to the temple in the morning with all the missionaries! loved that. it had been like 6 months since i'd been, it was a very lovely christmas present. then afterwards we did some activities like skits and eating, always eating. it was mostly just nice to see everyone! i joked with soeur cook though when we didn't get a chance to email, and i was like "man i really hope that this friday isn't really the end of the world because id idn't even get a chance to say by to my family..." good news! the world didn't end on the 21st! we still have time to repent! last week however, there was a cyclone (i actually don't know what the translation for that is in english, but it's kind of like a typhoon? i'm not really sure. google it.) that hit new caledonia and fiji, and we were on orange alert (next step up is red) for it to hit us, but it didn't--we just got the side effects which included CRAZY rain and wind. ALLLLLLL of the neighborhoods were seriously like pools. up to your knees in water. it made being on a bike preeeeeetty miserable, but it just allowed us to appreciate the drier...dryer? weather this week. 

ah! we had a marriage and baptism this week! it was great. our amie, faniza. she is great and the marriage and baptism went over really well--everything was pretty simple, but it was nice. and she got confirmed on sunday and we are happy about that. we're hoping that the ward will be a good support to her and her husband who is a semi-active member. 

GUYS CHRISTMAS IS TOMORROW! THIS IS THE LAST WEEK OF THE YEAR! THEN IT'S 2013! isn't it weird how i was supposed to finish my mission yesterday? whoops! this just means that y'all will be all the more excited to see me on january 29th. actually you will probably see me on january 30th, since the flight is at night. anyway. let's talk about how the end is hard because everyone just reminds me all the time that i only have a month left and just asks me about what i'm going to do afterwards. guhhhh! but it's ok. we've got two baptisms set for next year, one in january and one in february (sad that i'm gonna miss that one), and we're really close to fixing another one for january. weeee! so basically, things are going well. 

welp not too much else to say, especially since most of you will be seeing my pixelized face tomorrow! i hope everyone has an awesome christmas. i love you, and miss you. maybe you will think it's cliche, but take the time this christmas to think about the Savior. we do owe him everything, after all. GROS BISOUS! UA HERE AU IA OUTOU!! (kiss kiss, i love you!)

love,

soeur hansen