7/8/2024 - Week 70 - Proud to be an American!

Alexa. Play the Star Spangled Banner by Fergie

Hey, y'all happy Fourth! Here are some highlights from my week...

-meet and greet with President and Sister Trusty and getting dumped on with rain again!!! The Trustys are awesome and I'm so grateful for them

- the fourth of July with some awesome members! We had hot dogs and all the classic foods then some great fireworks and glow sticks out back!!! Super hot and humid but so fun

- we had an AMAZING lesson with our new friend Debbie who I'm pretty sure will be baptized one day. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she LOVED it! She was really searching for answers and the message that we shared with her was what she needed to hear! We are so excited for her!!

- so many lessons fell through this week due to the holiday, but it's okay because this week is gonna be better!

- we had a sisters only Zone p-day today that got infiltrated by Elders but that's okay we had fun

Spiritual thought: I know and I can testify that God is working in your life. I have a testimony of that. He is aware of you, He knows your name and He loves you. If you feel alone, please talk to Him, he wants to hear from you! And if you need someone to talk to reach out to me I'm always willing to chat (on p-days of course). I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!!

🩷Sister Hansen

7/1/2024 - Week 69 - Sweet Home Alabama

Hey squad, as of Saturday I am now a missionary in the Florida Tallahassee Mission! I got booted from Alabama which is a shame, but I'm excited for what the FTM will bring. Also with that, we have some different rules so I am not allowed to message friends over facebook messenger, so if you would like to chat please reach out to me via email!

On Tuesday last week we visited the Parsons family and they have a few teenagers who we've been visiting and so we decided to all paint Books of Mormon with them and it was so fun, they were all stressing about what to paint on there. I tried to paint the ocean on mine lol, it's not done yet, lol.

The next day we had district council- last one of the transfer and later we had dinner with this cute lil fam, but we mixed it up and we brought the food! So us and the Elders cooked for them and we had like a lil picnic it was really cute. Sis Huish also made a tower of Babel out of our food containers. (Pictured below) We also visited this sweet sister in our ward who is going through a really hard time and we were able to share a conference talk that she really needed to hear and the Spirit was very strong 

On Thursday we had our last Zone Conference in the ABM and we had to say goodbye to the Chibotas and a bunch of mission friends, which was soooo sad. :( But I know there is so much good ahead. The ZC was so spirit filled and there were so many things that I really needed to hear. We talked a lot about conversion and giving our all to the Lord, it was all really good. We each got to say goodbye to the Chibotas individually and it was very special, I am so grateful for them, they truly have become my 2nd parents out here and they have been so kind to me, they are forever my friends. Also got to see some missionary friends again so that was fun! We laughed, we cried, but it was a great time.

On Friday we went out to Alabama because we do have a chunk of it in our area but it's like boonies boonies. But we got to visit some awesome members out there and eat at a place called The Gator Cafe, haha. There's a street out there called Mormon Temple Road because there's an old church building on it haha, had to snap a pic. It was only fitting because it was our last day in the ABM and our last time in Alabama. We also got to have FHE with the Parsons and we were all laughing so hard the whole time. 

The next day we helped a family move into the ward and then after that all our plans fell through so we decided to ask God who we should visit and we both thought of a couple families and they all said that we could come by and one of them even gave us dinner! That night we had a Zoom call with our new mission leaders, the Trustys! They seem super awesome and they were so excited to meet us! We get to meet them in person this Wednesday we are so excited! 

Yesterday we had dinner with Jasmine and her family which was super fun. I love it here.

Spiritual thought:

The messages that we heard at Zone Conference really stood out  to me. They taught us about how we need to be truly converted to Jesus Christ. and that's something that is very personal and individual and I know it's super important. I just know that God wants all of us to come to know him and Jesus Christ and that when we do things that are in line with God's will, we will come to know him better. We all just need to serve with all our heart might mind and strength- which can be hard to do. So just keep doing your best, y'all got this!

❤️Sister Hansen

ABM🤠

March 23- June 24

FTM🐊

June 24- the foreseeable future

6/24/2024 - Week 68 - I'm a birthday girl!

Howdy! What a great week! I turned 22 this week, kinda insane!

We kinda celebrated all week which was super awesome, and Sister Huish made my b-day super special so that was super awesome! She made me wear a b-day girl sash to district council, haha. But on my actual birthday we had dinner with the Olsen family and we love them so much. We had some yummy cupcakes to celebrate, it was a great birthday! I also got to call my family and talk to them which was fun. Thank you to everyone who sent me a lil happy birthday note! I really appreciate it, I miss y'all!

On Thursday we got to have our Relief Society lunch get together in Destin, FL at this cute lil place called Lulu's! it was so fun to be with the ladies and such a fun lunch. Later that same day we had a RS activity and we played "volleyball" but in chairs and we hit a balloon over a net with pool noodles. It was so funny the ladies were getting into it. 

Yesterday before church we got to have breakfast with some of our favorite members, the Boyd's. They're so sweet. Also after church we had the opportunity to go visit 2 ladies in an assisted living facility who are both members of the church and neither of them have been to church or been able to have the sacrament in years. So we went with two of the young men and two not so young men to bring them the sacrament and give them both priesthood blessings. It was really amazing to see it. They were both very emotional and they both needed it so much. The spirit was so strong and they were very grateful for it. 

Today some of my best friends from Scottsboro, the Woods were passing through Crestview and they took us out to lunch! It was so good to see them, and it was very sweet of them to come visit us. I've been so blessed to meet some of the best people out here in the mission.

This week will be my last week in the Alabama Birmingham Mission. This Saturday it will become the Florida Tallahassee Mission! It's bittersweet, but I'm excited, I think it will be really good.

Spiritual thought:

I just love the ordinance of the sacrament and that we get to partake of it each week. I definitely didn't understand it well enough before my mission but now I'm so grateful for it and what it means. I love that we don't need to be baptized again every time we mess up (Because I would be in that font way too often) but that we can renew our baptismal covenant literally every week! It's too cool!

Anyway, I love y'all, have a good one! Send me a message if ya want!

❤️Sister Hansen

    

6/17/2024 - Week 67 - Jasmine got baptized!

Hello!!! It was such a wonderful week! So many miracles, let me give you the rundown...

Last Tuesday we had a mini Zone conference with just our zone where we talked about how to improve our work with members so that was good. Afterwards Jasmine had her baptismal interview and she passed!! So exciting, we also had a lesson with one of our newer friends, Andy at the church building and we later found out that he walked for an hour and a half in the Florida heat to get there! Kinda crazy. 

The next day we got to meet with our friend Shannan for the first time in awhile and it was so good to see her. She had just kinda taken a step back, but we were able to meet and address some concerns so that was really great! We also got to go to a cute little Relief Society activity where we made some cards! They turned out so cute!

On Friday night we set up FHE with a family we've been working with and we played Monopoly (which actually takes forever so we had to cut the game short). But before we played we saw that they had a wall with everyone's heights throughout the years and we asked if we could be on the wall so they measured us and got us on the wall! We also got to visit some members who have a bunch of lil puppies, so that was fun!

On Saturday, Jasmine was baptized! It was so amazing, she was baptized by her husband and despite us worrying if the font was going to be full enough, she went all the way under on the first try. I love baptisms so much, it's just such a feeling of joy to see someone make their first covenant with God especially after teaching them. It brings so much joy to my life! The baptism service went well and was just perfect for Jasmine.

Later that day we had dinner with some members and we were doing relatives around me and one sister in our ward was trying to tell Elder Bird that they were like 8th cousins or whatever, but instead she saw his first name on family search and just went "RYAN! we're cousins!" And we were all shook to our cores. 

Jasmine was confirmed by her husband on Sunday and it was so wonderful! Later we had dinner with the Loughmillers and they had a lil birthday party for me! It was so sweet, I love their family.

Crazy thing happened this morning while I was talking to my mom, Sister Huish's mom showed up at my house! They were in Meridian for the weekend so they arranged to meet and prank us!

Overall it was such a good week, we had so many lessons and we had members out with us all the time it was so good. Being a missionary is pretty cool

Spiritual Thought:

Mosiah 18:20-22

"Yea, even he commanded them that they should preach nothing save it were repentance and faith on the Lord who had redeemed his people. And he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye having one faith and one baptism having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one toward another. And thus he commanded them to preach, and thus they became the children of God."

I love how simple the gospel of Jesus Christ is and how all that we are asked to do is have faith and turn to him and repent! It really isn't that deep, but sometimes it can be hard. But we always know what we're supposed to be doing! So go keep having faith and trusting in God and Jesus Christ, they'll never let you down

Love y'all, have a great week!

❤️Sister Hansen

6/10/2024 - Week 66 - ABM vs FTM

Hello everyone! It's been a week since I talked to y'all, let me update ya...

This week we discovered a new place that is similar to Dutch Bros, and we get little Italian soda drinks there. Needless to say the least, we have become regulars there. But we also got to attend the baptism of an 8 year old girl in the ward, and when we got there her mom was like "Do you play the piano?" and I do, but I can't just play any song in the world and they needed me to play "When I am baptized" and "Gethsemane" for her baptism. I ended up playing them, but they weren't super professional, but I'm glad we were able to be there to help. 

We visited a less active member this week to help her with some service and she gave me this sweet horse shirt that she didn't want. Don't worry I've got pictures. Also we were going to go visit another member and she said we could come over so we went and when we knocked on her door she didn't answer. Later she texted us and said "oops, I was walking my dog" and that was just so funny to us for some reason.

We went to Mutual this week and they were having a trivia night which was super fun, but while we were there the APs showed up which was a surprise because they live 4 1/2 hours away from us. (They were coming for District council the next day) But we weren't able to go to District Council because we were moving Thursday morning. We packed up all our things the day before and cleaned our house as best we could and Thursday our housing coordinators came and helped us pack up our beds and we drove across town to our new apartment. It's very nice, it's brand new and in a better part of our area so it's a nice change. 

We had a lesson with a guy who referred himself to us and he said that he read the whole Book of Mormon in a week and that he knows it's true. You certainly don't get that one everyday. But he also told us all about how he believes in demons and stuff like that, so that was interesting. 

Also we went to visit a member who lives in a rehab center and when we got there they said she wasn't there. We're like what do you mean she's always here and they said she's at the hospital so we went and she was in the ER and they just let us in??? Like no ID, no check in, no temp check nothing just straight back to the ER. We're not even family or nothing. It was very interesting because she was fully sedated and we're actually not sure if she's okay or not, but we're gonna check on her again this week.

I also have two very exciting pieces of information for you 

1) Our friend Jasmine is getting baptized next Saturday!

2) We found out which missions we will be going to when the split happens.

As for Jasmine, we are super excited for her, she's so solid and she's finally ready and it's just gonna be so good

As for the mission, President Chibota called us the other day and let us know our fate. And the verdict is that as of July 1st, I will be finishing my mission in the Florida, Tallahassee Mission! (And so will Ssister Huish) It's kinda crazy honestly, I started my mission in Alabama, but now God needs me in Florida, and I'm excited. I will be sad to say goodbye to the Chibotas, but I'm excited to meet our new mission leaders!

Spiritual thought:

I love covenants. Before my mission I didn't really understand exactly what covenants were, but it has been my privilege to get to teach people about them and even witness a few of them make covenants of their own. Yesterday in Relief Society we talked about Elder Soares' talk from the last conference about Covenant Confidence. And I love how he talks about how when we make and keep covenants with God we can be confident that God will keep His end of the bargain. Because he has to. And it's so cool. Making and keeping covenants through the holy priesthood is one of the biggest blessings we have in this life and within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Alma 37:16-17

But if ye keep the commandments of God and do with these things which are sacred. According to that which the Lord doth command you (For you must appeal unto the lord for all things whatsoever ye must do with them) behold no power of earth or hell can take them from you for God is powerful to the fulfilling of all his words. For he will fulfill all his promises which he shall make unto you, for he has fulfilled his promises which he has made unto our fathers

I love y'all so much, have an amazing week!

Here's my new address 

301 E. Redstone Ave apt #4105

Crestview, FL 32539