It was quite a busy week...(so, short letter)

Alright here we go. So Monday - Tuesday was EXCHANGES. I have officially hit every zone in the mission now. Goal accomplished. Houghson is so cute. LIterally the cutest little town. Exchanges were great. We had a lesson with one of their Investigators that has a baptismal date and she is AWESOME. Wow so cool. The house there was tiny so fitting five people in that little house was... fun and hot and exciting and small and yeah. Twas a good day.

My temple socks!

Wednesday was Zone Conference!! Literally this day is my favorite day in the mission. When all the missionaries get to come together and council and just be together. Wow so much fun. It was quite a uplifting experience. President Palmer was very concerned about our safety and our well being. It was just so good. Then after Zone Conference we had a meeting with our investigator, Monica. She is amazing. We met with her and she told us how much she loved these two conference talks. She sent them to her friends and everything. WE DIDN'T EVEN TELL HER TO. She is so amazing. She is so excited about coming to church and she has this adorable son. His name is Liam. She is amazing.

It was quite a busy week. But I don't have time to write it all down. So sorry! Hope you all have a wonderful week!

LOVE,
SISTER HANSEN

I honestly cannot even title this email

Let me start from the beginning of the week...
Monday the weather was wild. It down poured then it was beautiful weather, "Blue skies and SUNSHINE!", then it hailed, then it was "Blue skies and SUNSHINE!" then the whole parking lot at the church was just steaming... it was quite scary, then it rained some more. Crazy. We went to help someone at their house and before we went in, there was a pile of snow at the bottom of their gutter. Obviously we took a picture.

Some Utah boys who are in Modesto working summer sales.
They stopped to say HELLO when they saw the sister missionaries!

Happy Birthday to Sister Eliason. We had such a good missionary day! I guess we should have more birthdays around here because we were able to meet with two of our investigators in 8th ward and have lessons with them, we got lunch and can't forget the ice cream.

Sister Peterson and me playing with snakes.

Then Miss Halie Goulding. Man I love her. She was able to come to our District meeting and share an awesome mission experience/training with us about the atonement. (if only our district was reverent). I don't know why, but this girl like loved me, we barely even know each other. I have only seen her twice, but we were like besties. She is so cute, she left right after District meeting to go to Utah for her sisters wedding then she is headed out for BYU-I for school. She was literally home from her mission for less than a week... remind me not to do that. Wow. I need a little more time with my family. Like wow.

We got a really solid referral from Head Quarters. His name is J.S. He started chatting with missionaries online and he ordered himself a Book of Mormon and Bible and told us he had already been looking through it. He told us that he just wants to find the Lord. Although he has great faith he wants to expand his faith and come to know Christ even more. When we called him, he sounded really young and we were sorta bummed because we would have to pass it on to the YSA Elders but we asked him his age and he said 15! So we have to get parents permission but we were so impressed with this 15 year old boy looking for the truth... sounds familiar.

HOLY COW. JENNY MAY! This crazy lady gave us a call this last week and told us she would be moving into the ward and that she may need some help moving in. We told her we would love to help and oddly enough Sister Palmer called that day and said she wanted to have lunch with us, we told her about the situation and Sister Palmer (mission president's wife) said "GREAT! I'll come!" This lady is an angel and she is hilarious. The May family is AMAZING. They told us they haven't been to church in a while but told us that they would like to be fully active again. THEY WILL BE. Sister Eliason spoke in church and they come strolling in! Very exciting.

LOVE MODESTO clean up crew (aka missionaries!)

#L❤veModesto was this week! This is a giant service project thing that the whole community gets together and spreads throughout Modesto to pick up garbage help build stuff and just make Modesto a better place. There was a TON of people there. IT WAS SO FUN! Sister Petersen, Eliason, and I as well as Elder Longman, Beus, Andersen, and Pasikala we all went to Agnes Baptist school and did yard work and some other stuff. Seriously so much fun.

Have a great week!
Sister Hansen

CHIN UP AND CHARGE THE MOUNTAIN

WHAT. A. WEEK.

Alright people, this week was wild. everything about it, and I honestly can't even believe it has only been a week. We are so overwhelmed with all the work we have to organize between the 8th ward and the 10th ward. We have been so busy with moving in and organizing dinners and all that other stuff. Just when I thought I was going to have a break down because of all the stress, Sunday came.

My new companions: Sister Peterson, Sister Eliason and Me!

For all those who have been on missions Sundays are a day that we, as missionaries, all look forward too. To sit and listen to the prelude music, sing hymns with the congregation and the people we love, partake of the sacrament and renew our covenants with our Heavenly Father, listen to the speakers and be spiritually fed with wonderful news and further knowledge about this wonderful Gospel we have been privileged to be a part of. Well, this particular Sunday was very stand out. In Ward Council we had a very nice discussion about how to prevent abuse in the homes. It amazed me that the church is time and time again taking the bigger step, what a good look we must have to cover this and be so concerned about the Family. I was reading a Conference talk from April 2013 (We can do that now with smartphones ❤😍) A talk by Elder L. Whitney Clayton he said "Humility means that both husbands and wives seek to bless, help, and lift each other, putting the other first in every decision." This is only one of many references that apostles and prophets and not to mention our Father above have mentioned about families and the respect we should have for each other at all times. May we all "Cleave" unto this Gospel and families and not let go.

Sister Eliason and me sporting our awesome helmets!

Whoops went on a tangent... anyways back to church. So there was a missionary homecoming this last week and she honestly changed my mission, and my life. She spoke about her mission in a way that was just amazing to me. She cherished the miracles that she was able to take part of and expressed her appreciation for the spirit directing her to decide to go on a mission, if she wouldn't have listened she wouldn't have been able to take part in anything that she cherished so dearly. It made me think, "That is what I want". She also talked about the Atonement like I have never heard and it just opened a whole new eye to the gift that we have been given. Wow, she was amazing.

The rest of church was wild because we had to go to both wards, ward councils and so forth. BUSY BUSY BUSY.

I am grateful for this wonderful opportunity to serve. I have been very blessed.

Met up with one of my favorite families from my first area. Love these people!

Sister Hansen

VERY HAPPY TEARS PEOPLE.

I am so overwhelmed with everything I have to cover today. But guess what? The internet is down at the church, so I have to use my phone which is not fun. Next week hopefully I will be able to tell you more...

So here are some main points for this week...Sister Rose is a strong individual and God put us together for a reason, it was no coincidence. God has a plan for each of us and he has a heck of a plan for Sister Rose. We love her very very much.

Conference was AMAZING! And wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. So many changes. But one of my favorite parts they saved for last! New temples! LAYTON UTAH. SAY WHHAAATTTTT! I wish my reaction was on video. I was all sitting back on the couch then he said that and I shot up faster then I ever have, gasped and then started to cry... very happy tears might I add. VERY HAPPY TEARS PEOPLE.

No more visiting teaching? I'm almost a little bummed about this, but I know it is Gods will. I remember in Tracy when Bishop Hendricks talked to Sister Bustos and I in one of our meetings. He said "a visiting teacher will be one of if not the most important calling of your life. Please preform faithfully." I appreciated that so much and at that moment I committed to be a faithful visiting teacher when I returned home from my mission. And now I will minister to whomever I am assigned. These are souls we are talking about, treat them with so much care, just as the Savior would.

Sorry for the short email... But I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Really random pictures this week... oops

Also very foggy morning.I don't know if I have told you guys this but we have been playing frisbee every morning and I have been teaching them how to throw a frisbee. They are killing it!

Sister Hansen

10 seconds of Courage!

How is everyone doing? First off I want to apologize to those of you who email me and I don't get back to you. Here are my bad reasonings behind it... 1)There are a lot of things happening and needing to happen on Mondays. 2)I cannot focus enough to email for very long. 3)Bored of being on the computers for too long.... So now that I have cleared that up lets get on to this very exciting week!

I GOT TO HOLD A BIRD: Pretty cool experience because the owner was like, "Wow she was so good with You! Your so confident with her!" So pretty much I'm a bird whisperer.

We had exchanges! GUESS WHO IS MY SISTER TRAINING LEADER!? YUP SISTER BUSTOS! We got there and then we were assigned to our sister training leaders. Sister Rose went with Sister Bird. Sister Turinetti and I went with Sister Bustos! The exchange was awesome, so many experiences were brought to pass. Sister Bustos has grown so much and she is such an amazing missionary. She realizes that missionaries do awkward things and she just does all she can to spread the word. We actually talked to this guy that was just so shocked that we were there and that we stopped and were willing to answer his questions. After we talked with him for 45 min. and showed him a video about the Atonement he accepted that we could come back. Quite an amazing experience. Thanks Sister Bustos :)

Sister Turinetti, Sister Bustos, Me!

Awesome Yosemite mural on Yosemite Ave.

Ok I am running out of time yet again, but let me tell you about an experience I had this last week. So just a reminder... we have technology. Ok so the other night we were going to visit this referral that was given to us a while back. This would be the second time we had contacted her, the first time we saw her she answered the door and told us that she was going through a really rough time and that her husband had just passed away. She told us to come back on a Friday evening. Well the following Friday evening we tried her and there was no answer. So the other day we tried her again (this is maybe like a week and a half later). Well her daughter answered the door and told us pretty much the same thing, but that her mom wanted us to text her in advance. So we got her number and since then we have texted her. We said that we didn't want to pressure her into meeting with us but that we had a message that could really help her. We attached the #BecauseofHim video.

But guess what? That wasn't even the good part. As we left her house that night, there was this group of high school kids that were messing around in the cold-a-sac. First off let me tell you that talking to youth on the street is something we are counseled not to do, just because of legal complexities. Anyway, so Sister Turinetti and Sister Rose were updating the record of this referral and I had a REALLY strong prompting that we needed to go talk to those kids and share the same video with them. I told my companions "Hey!10 seconds of Courage. We are gonna go share the video with those kids." Well we walked up to them, actually I looked back and realized that I had walked so quickly that I was the only one that was ready to talk to them. Anyway I said "HEY we are missionaries and we are out sharing a video, we were wondering if we could share it with you all as well?" One kid YELLED at his friends and said "Hey we are watching a video" They were a little weird about it, you know, cause they are in high school, but then they were like super into the video. When it got over the spirit was so strong and they just started asking questions and stuff and we were able to testify about the restoration and the Book of Mormon and stuff. It was honestly amazing. I was so very grateful for that opportunity. "10 seconds of courage" is now our companionship motto. You never know whose life you can change.

Talk about "puppy dog eyes!"

Grateful for the amazing opportunities that are placed in front of me every single day to testify and share the gospel.

Don't forget! Missionaries are always grateful for letters! To be honest, if you want a personal response I am more likely to do it in a letter.

LOVE YOU ALL!

Sister Hansen

Raindrops keep falling on my head

SURPRISE! I'M ON FACEBOOK! Don't worry I can't believe it either. I can say that I don't love to be updated like all the time about everyone's life sooo for the most part I have been unfriending and hiding posts:) I have mostly missionaries on my feed which is VERY uplifting and I hope it stays like that forever. Cleaning out my facebook was... interesting. Super weird seeing all these OLD pictures and stuff. While we were all going through that and hiding stuff and stuff Sister Rose pulls up a pre-picture... with me in it. CRAZY.

Elder Pope. Knew of him but never talked to him. We were biking home from church and he honks and sticks his head out the window. Then comes and says hello. He has been home for like 3 months and came back to tour the mission with his parents!

Also that day at Zone Conference I saw my 5th Cousin, Elder Gifford! Haha everytime we see each other he gives an remark like "Hey! Have you talked to Uncle Joe lately?" or "Hey Cuz!" Just silly stuff like that.

Still can't believe she is my companion!

So I don't have a lot of time/I don't have the patience to write an email :D but it rained QUITE a bit today. ​​I have a VIDEO of that. My jacket is still not water proof (sorry mom). But it was quite fun to play in the rain.

Doodles

Sorry for the lame email. Thanks for everything!

WOW! Time is flying by way too fast...8 months!!

This week has literally flown by. We are already on Week 3 of the Transfer.
The other day was extremely busy and we didn't have a dinner that night so Sister Mckinnon (the sweetest old lady in the whole world, she drives us around on Mondays and so forth) took us under her wing. We got to her house at like 7:00 and we were in SUCH a weird mood. We were exhausted, and almost falling asleep at the dinner table... We seriously thought that Sister Turinetti was going to fall asleep on her bike. We were DEAD.

A sister in the ward made us all aprons.
Me, Sister Turinetti, Sister Rose

Anyway... So HEY WE HAVE SMARTPHONES NOW! I cannot believe that this day has finally come, there has been so many rumors of the smartphones and how they are happening and what we are using them for and WHEN we were getting them. Finally we have received the smartphones. We have already been receiving online referrals and figuring out Gospel Library and so forth. It is such a blessing.

Church on Sunday was soooo amazing. Sacrament meeting was just so full of the spirit. Here is an analogy that I would LOVE to share... Compare the Atonement/Savior to a glow stick and a child. Imagine the child waving the glow stick around all dull and thinking how enjoyable it is. He has no idea what "fun" he is capable of having. His older brother takes the dull glow stick and cracks it and the child realizes what he has been missing. The glow stick shines and the child is so thrilled. Once it was broken then it could glow.

I GOT TO PET A HORSE!!

Not exactly the story and I probably slaughtered it buuuutt it helped me understand why hard things happen to good people. Trials come because "once [we] are broken [we] are able to glow." What an amazing knowledge we have of a loving Heavenly Father who is willing to watch us go through hard trials. But he knows the growth that will come from it.

Quinton L. Cook once said "The test of greatness is the way One meets the eternal Everyday."
A couple other things I studied that touched my heart...
President Gordon B. Hinckley has reminded us, "We are here to assist our Father in His work and His glory, 'to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. (Moses 1:39)"
"Behold, the Spirit of the Lord has called him another way:" (Alma 22:4)

Hope everyone has an amazing week!

Love, Sister Hansen

I am RIGHT WHERE I BELONG

I forgot my week notes so I am doing something else. But before I start I would like to say that I am RIGHT WHERE I BELONG.

Saying goodbye to the Manteca zone (some of them)

Spiritual Giants in my life...

Sister Rose: Sister Rose has been a constant person on my mission of someone I can look to for reassurance and happiness. And guess what now she is my companion. I am so eternally indebted to our Heavenly Father for allowing us to be companions again. My attitude and diligence has already been in check and encouraged and I am grateful for her example in my life. She has and continues to be strengthened in the Lord and I am excited to serve by her side once again.

My two companions, Sister Turinetti and Sister Rose

Sister Turinetti: Wow has it only been a week? I feel like we have known each other for months and yet it has only been a week. I am confident that we told each other in the premortal world that we would see each other soon. Every single day I am just constantly amazed of the amount of trust she has in the Lord. Every step she takes she makes sure it is the Father's will. It is quite overwhelming thinking about the things I have and have yet to learn from this amazing Sister.

Dramatically riding our bikes in the Rain

President Palmer: This man has changed my life. Our mission vision: "We are one with the Savior in doing the Will of the Father", has changed from "mission vision"  to "life vision". In our lives we need to focus on HIS will not our own. If we put everything in his hands we will soon see His hands in everything. President Palmer has helped me realize this so much.

There are many more people who have blessed my life that I will never be able to repay but here are just some stand out ones for this week.

JUST KNOW THAT I AM SO HAPPY TO BE IN A NEW AREA WITH MY WONDERFUL COMPANIONS AND I AM SO EXCITED TO LEARN AND GROW:)

Love you,
Sister Hansen


My email: anhansen@myldsmail.net

I'm getting TRANSFERRED!

HEY EVERYBODY! You are not going to believe this but I am getting TRANSFERRED! To the smallest boundaries in the mission:) MODESTO 10th ward. More BIG news: I will be serving in a Trio! with...... *DRUM ROLL PLEASE* Sister Turnetti and SISTER ROSE! Yes that is right. My good ole MTC companion. I am BEYOND excited. Can you even handle anymore news? Sister Bustos will be serving in Manteca as a SISTER TRAINING LEADER! Dang this girl has changed my life and we have become best friends. My prayers go out to her and I am excited for her progression.

BLOSSOMS!!

Wow onto this week. We were meeting with a Less active Melchizedek priesthood holder and after the lesson he gave us a tour of his home. Pretty amazing! This family is our all time favorite family. We have a vacation planned out with them when we are both home from our missions. VEGAS BABY! They actually are moving there so the transfer isn't AS hard. I actually feel really good about this transfer. EXCEPT, we have found a new investigator and already just fallen in love with her, we just got a ball rolling and YANKED. That's alright everything happens for a reason. But we taught her an awesome lesson about the Plan of Salvation and she was very interested in the Families can be together forever thing, as well as the idea of being sealed to her parents, hopefully the Elders coming in will be able to grab that real quick.

Ok so I definitely learned how to juggle and guess what else I have learned to do?! WATER COLOR. The other night at a members house we ate pizza and painted. While we were painting we had an amazing gospel discussion. There is something about painting that is so relaxing. When you are relaxed you are more prone to the Spirit and it was definitely present. So that was a cool experience. I will send you pictures of some of my paintings.

      

Here is a scripture I have found solace in... 2 Kings 20:5 "I have heard thy prayers; I have seen thy tears; I will heal thee". No matter what we are going through the Lord's arm is ALWAYS reached out to us. WHATEVER we may be going through or how we are feeling. HE KNOWS. I have been studying a lot in Jesus the Christ and there is a section in it that is talking about "Relative Perfection" This is the section:
Relative Perfection.—Our Lord’s admonition to men to become perfect, even as the Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48) cannot rationally be construed otherwise than as implying the possibility of such achievement. Plainly, however, man cannot become perfect in mortality in the sense in which God is perfect as a supremely glorified Being. It is possible, though, for man to be perfect in his sphere in a sense analogous to that in which superior intelligences are perfect in their several spheres; yet the relative perfection of the lower is infinitely inferior to that of the higher. A college student in his freshman or sophomore year may be perfect as freshman or sophomore; his record may possibly be a hundred per cent on the scale of efficiency and achievement; yet the honors of the upper classman are beyond him, and the attainment of graduation is to him remote, but of assured possibility if he does but continue faithful and devoted to the end.

This has really brought me comfort. "Comparison is the thief of Joy." All this has just been ingrained in my head and is SOOO important. But the important part of it is that if we mess up THAT is what the atonement is for, we are always able to make it back. Each time we slip and make it back we become stronger. What a beautiful gift we have been given.

Brought back happy memories of being in Moonlight Serenade in High School!

Love you!

Sister Hansen

Email me at: anhansen@myldsmail.net

Discussions are so Full of Truth

HEY Y'ALL! First of all I just want to say that Sister Bustos is one of my best friends. Take it how you will. I love this chick. So here is a quote from her, "Where is my coat of many colors?" Now let me explain, so the other day I had a dream that was REALLY vivid and I could not stop thinking about it, I was like "IT HAS TO MEAN SOMETHING". That morning while tracting we discussed different details of the dream and then BOOM we interpreted it. I was so excited I have never thought through a dream that much until then, so THANK YOU SISTER BUSTOS!

In honor of the Olympics we had to get as close as we could to "watching" them.
So we knocked Olympic Road. 

Not a ton happened this week... BUT MARDI GRAS AND VALENTINES DAY! WOOT WOOT. Except Valentines NIGHT was so hard to get appointments with people, all OUR "Dates" canceled on us. But we figured some stuff out. It was a lot of fun giving out chocolate on Valentines day and the Book of Mormon chocolates actually sparked some conversations about the Book of Mormon! So that was great.

Chocolates mom sent Allison for Valentine's Day except they were all in Book of Mormon wrappers.
Glad she had fun with them!

Mardi Gras art

We found a potential while we were knocking doors and let me just say WOW and that this never happens, She LET US IN AND WE TAUGHT THE WHOLE RESTORATION. AND SHE INVITED US BACK! I was TOTALLY pumped. So good. That day was BY far the best day of my week. There is something about the missionary discussions, they have the capability to bring the spirit in the room SO fast. Wow they are so full of truth and the spirit just takes over the conversation. I am so grateful to be a missionary and to feel that spirit. WOW. Grateful.

Service with my District

Also an investigator that found HIS way to church that we have only been able to teach him at church came to church again this week. He is from Israel and he is a Jew. This conversation got SO heated. He says that he doesn't really believe everything our church believes in but he feels SO much love and peace when he comes, so that is why he is going to come back. he refuses to "Convert".

Also It was 44 degrees this morning. NOT COOL.

I don't really know what else to say. LOVE YOU!

Sister Hansen

Best proselyting day!

Alright. So there has been a lot of talk about the Greatest Showman out here and what are the odds that I would learn how to juggle? Yes sir I LEARNED HOW TO JUGGLE! Life long goal ACCOMPLISHED.

This week has been very good at the beginning but it got REAL slow by the end of the week. On Tuesday the Elders (District Leaders and Zone Leaders) were on exchanges and Elder Mutchie and Elder Wade were together. They called so Elder Mutchie could ask us to give a training in District Meeting and after they asked what our goal for handing out copies of the Book of Mormon was. Well long story short they pushed us to our limit and it was the best proselyting day I have ever had. 3 Book of Mormons, 2 Pamphlets, and 6 pass along cards. Wow. Thanks Elders :).

Emailing with Elder Mutchie
(We're friends from high school and he's now my district leader!)

This last Sunday I was "So Privileged" I got to speak in sacrament, do a musical number "How Great Shall be Your Joy" and we taught a VERY short lesson in Gospel Principles. Big day. And it was our Bishops sons homecoming as well and DANG they do it differently here. He didn't even talk about his mission! Crazy.

I am ready for a new week. But hope everything is well.

Love,
Sister Hansen


Email address: anhansen@myldsmail.net

Mailing address:
Sister Allison Hansen
California Modesto Mission
4300 Dale Rd.
Modesto, CA 95356