Week 34: The secret to being a successful missionary... STICKERS!

Dear everyone,

To begin, here´s what I forgot in last week´s email...

1) Explanation of the subject line (the week I finally realized I could speak Spanish): I dreamed at least twice in Spanish!  I´m not sure if that has happened before, but this time I was conscious of the Spanish.  Also, we contacted some Canadian tourists on our way home and I had to speak English in the contact. My English was ridiculously awkward... ¨Oh, you speak English?  Well, we´re misione-... I mean, missionaries, of the Church of...Jesus Christ of... Latter-Day Saints,¨ and so forth.  It turns out I only know how to be a missionary in Spanish.

2) A big thank you to the Cluff family, the Keith family, and Sister Angie Arnoldsen for sending me their Christmas cards!  I loved seeing your cute pictures and reading your kind messages.  Thanks, Barb, for the stickers!  More on that later...

Anyway, it was an up and down week.  We have been working on applying a new mission initiative which translates to ¨the finding funnel¨ with some success.  I´m trying to focus on being more led by the Spirit in our lessons and responding to the investigators´ needs.

Monday: Family Night!  There´s an awesome group of recent converts who all congregate in the home of our lunch appointment, Hermana Melixza, every Monday night.  They practice teaching, and everyone participates in the gospel discussion.  It´s basically the most effective thing I´ve ever seen in convert retention, and I leave each week with my heart so happy!

Tuesday: Habitat for Humanity.  Just kidding... we went to help Luis Alberto clean out a little shack next to his house so he could live the law of chastity and not live with his friend Manuela.  They didn´t want us to help at first, but we just jumped in and didn´t give them the option to say no.  After we started, they got excited and were very pleased with the outcome.  From this experience, I learned: 1) People usually feel awkward when you ask how you can serve them.  ¨First observe, then serve¨ is a very true principle!  2) Everyone feels happier in a clean, orderly environment.  That is where the Spirit can dwell!  So go clean your room. :)

Wednesday: Divisions again.  Hermana Arana is the only sister training leader for this zone, so she works individually with each sister in the zone. This week, she worked with my companion in our area. I went to Pancasan 2 again with Hermana Lagos... I´ve started calling her, ¨my other companion.¨ We had fun visiting some of the same people as last week and helping some members bag homemade coconut candies, and they gave us some to take home-- yum!

Thursday: Weekly planning and a normal day.

Friday: Hno. Rafael, the ward mission leader, accompanied us on some visits.  Woohoo!

Saturday: Baptisms!  Luis Alberto and Santiago both got baptized.  We were a little worried when we couldn´t find Luis before his baptism, but he made it to the church on time and by himself!  Another miracle: we had sufficient baptismal clothing, and priesthood holders, and we didn´t have to run around finding people to give talks and prayers.  Life runs so smoothly with ward mission leaders who fulfill their callings!  Also, Santiago removed his white Catholic rosary before the baptism... that was another little miracle.  ;)

Sunday: We had a family at church!  And Luis Alberto got confirmed!  Unfortunately, Santiago seems to have forgotten how important it was to complete the second half of his baptismal ordinance and went to sell clothing on his bicycle early in the morning and was nowhere to be found.  Ouch, that hurts.  We´ll get  him to church next week to be confirmed.  

Two other things to note:

1) I gave out stickers to our primary-aged recent converts for learning Articles of Faith.  Wow, I´ve never seen kids more motivated by a little happy face or bowtie-wearing bear!  My companion and I discussed (jokingly... but with a little bit of seriousness) that we should give out stickers to investigators of all ages to incentivize them to come to church.

2) I have a new food addiction.  Well, two.  One of them is green (unripened) mangoes with lime, salt, and chile.  The other is ¨helados,¨ which are homemade ice cream things packaged in plastic bags.  I´ll try to send a picture next week.

My emails have certainly lost the spiritual aspect, so I promise to focus more on that next week!  A huge thank you to my brother Jake for his inspired email.

Don´t forget to love, serve, and smile!  Be obedient!

Love you!

-Hermana Hansen

Photos:

1) All the baptismal candidates for the Pancasan branch this week

2) With Luis Alberto and Santiago (the one and a half converts)

Week 33: The week I finally realized I could speak Spanish

Hey, everyone!

So, I spent basically all of my email time sending personal emails.  I apologize in advance for the anticipated lame-ness of this week`s report.

- We had divisions within the zone on Wednesday!  I worked with Hermana Lagos, who was Hermana Aquian`s companion two changes ago.  It was fun to work in another area (even though I don`t really know my way around my own area yet) and get to know Hermana Lagos.  We had fun teaching together, working hard to meet the zone`s goals for the exchanges and discussing methods to combat mission weight gain.

- This Sunday was District Conference, like Stake Conference but for an area that only has branches instead of wards.  We had sweet Roxanna, a 14-year-old new investigator walk the rounds with us for over an hour in the morning reminding all of our investigators that they committed to go to church.  We had a miracle contact on Saturday that showed up to the conference on Sunday... woohoo!  The talks were good, although different than the stake conferences I`m used to.  Speakers addressed topics of chastity, tithing, agency, and the importance of attending church.

- We have some baptismal prospects for this Saturday!  I`ll let you know how that goes next week.

-Old Nicaraguan men are hilarious and very frank.  Luis Alberto has no problem telling us exactly how long it`s been since he`s been intimate with his ¨wife¨ (they`re not married) Manuela, all with his cute bug eyes.  Also, he told us that he knows the Book of Mormon is true because he read the introduction and it talks about Esther just like in the Bible.  We didn`t have the heart to tell him that ¨Esther¨ is really ¨Ether.¨  

Another favorite old man is Ronaldo.  After explaining the Word of Wisdom, he says, ¨Estas hermanitas me ponen un camino angostito.¨ We gifted him a bag of Pinolillo (popular Nicaraguan drink mix) to help him not drink coffee, and he was so grateful that he now wants to buy us leather belts... haha, Nicaragua never ceases to amuse me!

Ah, I`m out of time, but I have so much more to say!  My companion is sometimes super hilarious.  Sometimes the heat makes us loopy and ridiculously tired.  Anyway, until next week!

I love you lots!

Hermana Ali Hansen

Photos

1. The hermanas of Zona Granada next to their companions!  Hermana Powell is from Brigham City and went to Box Elder.  She knows Andrew Miller!

2. Hermanas of Granada next to their companions for a day

3. Zona Granada celebrating birthdays of Hermana Arana and Elder Jimenez in the restaurant Ajua

Week 32: Hello from... GRANADA!

Hello, family and friends!

So... I've been transferred!  First time out of Managua, woohoo!  I'm in the historic city of Granada, area Pancasan 3.  Wow, we're a five-minute walk from old Catholic cathedrals, tile roofs, cobblestone streets, brightly colored buildings, etc.  Look up Granada on Google images and think of me walking around those streets here on P-day. I love it!!

The area we actually work in is more tranquila.  The biggest changes are that here is flat; after seven months of climbing hills in Monte Fresco and Loma Linda, my leg muscles crave that exercise!  There's less noise, trash, buses, etc. than in my former area.  The people are friendly and happy to listen, even though there are more Catholics here.  I feel like a city kid that got sent to the country, and the stress in my shoulders is melting away!

My companion is Hermana Perez.  She has three months in the mission and is a sweetheart.  She's the ninth of 12 children and was a preschool teacher before her mission.  We get along famously and work hard, which I love!

Most of the recent converts and investigators here are children.  Perhaps for pressure to baptize, it's that way.  But we also have some "sacerdocios" (men older than 18) that are progressing, so that's good.  I'm excited to get to work in this area and see what the next few months bring!

Pancasan is a branch, not a ward.  The church building is similar in size to a double-wide trailer, but it's a slightly more permanent structure. :)  The advantage is that here there are two branches that meet, one at 9:00 AM and one at 2:00, so that means twice the opportunity to get investigators to church!

It was hard to say goodbye in Loma Linda.  Hna. Elizabeth and Hna. Gladys were the hardest.  Our "chavalos" Geovanny, Erwin, and Gerald were all at SOY (EFY) all week, so I didn't get to see them.  I guess I'll just have to come back to visit in a couple years!

Spiritual insights for this week:  I loved Elder Lynn G. Robbins' conference talk, "Which Way Do You Face?"  and also the Relief Society lesson on Elder Benson's talk about loving God above all other things. Man, this is such a true principle!  Do what you can this week to put God first and watch the unneccessary things fall out of your life.  Please God before pleasing man.  It's my goal to become a more dedicated servant of Him... feel free to join me!

Lots of love!

Hermana Ali Hansen

Photos:

1) My favorite children ever... Cony and Caroline.  Caroline, the little one, talks a ton and always says in a very earnest voice, "Ver-dad, 'manas?"  (Right, Hermanas?)  I'll miss their hugs and cheek kisses!

2) Jamileth and Noel, recent converts in Loma Linda who we visited a lot

3) Hermana Gladys, my mission abuelita

4) Officially my nicest bathroom of the mission so far!  Mire, que fachenta!  Also, the first time having a showerhead, and the water is often warm because it's so hot here.  I could get used to this!

5) With Hermana Perez!  I know, my cheeks are huge and my companion is tiny.  Don't worry, "Operation: Shrink the Cheeks" is already underway.  Step one: Don't live close to Hermana Gladys. :)

Week 31: I dreamed a dream...

Hello, everyone!

Happy New Year!  I celebrated by... sleeping through all the midnight fireworks and noise.  The mission exhaustion is just that deep!

It was nice to have a more normal week this week after the two most stressful weeks of my mission.  Let´s see what I can remember that would be of interest to all of you:

-I´ve learned that the scripture in 2 Nephi 31 that says the Spirit speaks to us in the way we can understand is very true.  Nicaraguans understand the Spirit often times through dreams.  And sometimes they ask us as missionaries to interpret their dreams... Sorry, I still haven´t reached Joseph of Egypt status on that front.  Anyway, here are two positive dream stories from this week:

Elieth (who is radiantly happy ever since her baptism) told us that she had been nervous and unsure about getting baptized on the 27th.  She had been praying for a witness that she should go forward with this major step, and the night beforehand she had a dream that she was entering the baptismal font dressed in white.  So, she went through with it!  Ah, I love being on the same team as Heavenly Father in this great work!

Elizabeth (recent convert) has been passing through some majorly hard trials in her family and with some of the leaders of the ward.  She was on the point of giving up the fight and leaving the church, but she decided to ask God first.  She prayed and said, ¨If I´m supposed to stick with this, let me dream of my mother and father tonight.¨ The next several hours she slept restlessly, but at 4:30 AM she dreamed of both parents right before being awoken by a mistakenly set cell phone alarm.  Wow, I love that woman for her strong testimony and her great personality!

-One of the best moments of my week was when Erwin walked into sacrament meeting literally pushing his two rough-looking teenage non-member friends in ahead of him.  Afterward, we asked him how he got them to come, and he said that he just decided to pass by their houses on the way to church and told them that church ¨no es nada aburrida.¨  And they both liked it, because we watched a cheesy 1980´s church video in Gospel Principles.  The Lord works in mysterious ways...

-On December 31st, we returned to our apartment at 9:30 PM to find a tarantula on the wall of our study room.  There was considerably less squealing and fanfare than the first time this happened... just took some quick photos, smashed him with a broom, and swept him up to begin planning for the next day´s appointments.

-Tania, age 14, was looking through my photos on my camera and came across some photos we took before entering the MTC.  

¨Who´s that?¨ 

¨Oh, it´s my mom.¨ 

¨No, the one in the middle.¨ 

¨That´s me!¨ 

With huge eyes, ¨I don´t believe you!  Really?! Wow, you´re so skinny!¨

Thank you for your honesty... hahaha!  I figure I´m either preparing for a parasite, or my spirit is just getting so big that my body has to expand to fit it.

Anyway, I´m going to send photos now.  But I hope you all had a happy new year and are working on meeting your goals!  It was fun to think back on all that happened in 2014 and set new goals for the coming year.  It´s been a year of major growth, that´s for sure!

Love you lots!

-Hermana Ali Hansen

Photos:

1) Christmas dinner at the multi-zone conference with my randomly curly hair and three of my favorite ladies

2) Elieth and Juan Carlos with Emanuel on their wedding day!

3) Cutting the cake

4) Baptism of Elieth

5) Happy New Year!  Burning the old man...

6) Our other roommate, with El Libro de Mormon for reference

Week 30: Christmas and a Wedding

Dearest family and friends,

 

First off, I LOVE you a lot!  It was heaven to talk to you on Christmas and see your cute faces.  I forgot to congratulate Rebekah on finishing her college applications (seriously, I remember that being a huge stress, but you did it!), but other than that I think we hit all the major news points.  Even more than that, thank you for your personal messages to me that I received in our Christmas multi-zone conference!  And the family photo was another wonderful surprise.  HOORAY that we get to be together for eternity!

 

So, here in Nicaragua, Christmas means fireworks, parties, and a big dinner.  Also, lots of alcohol, but let´s not focus on that. :)  Everything happens on the 24th leading up to midnight instead of in the morning on the 25th.  For Nicaraguans, the ¨cena¨ is a more common form of celebration than presents.  We had two Christmas dinners in a row, first with Santiago and Elizabeth, then with Hermana Gladys.  Wow, we were stuffed to bursting!  Traditional Christmas food is pollo relleno (you can look it up, I´m not sure everything that it includes).  It was a good day, although we didn´t work very effectively.

 

On the 25th, I Skyped the fam!  Thanks for being yourselves and being such great people.

 

The 26th was our multi-zone conference.  We listened to inspired messages by President and Sister Russell, then had a three-course meal in the cultural hall.  After that, we changed into ¨ropa P-day¨ and played volleyball and broom hockey, which was ridiculously intense and super fun.  Then we changed back to our missionary clothes and had a gift exchange, watched a slideshow of pictures of every missionary´s family, and received gifts from the mission.  You should have seen how excited that room of missionaries got when President Russell announced that each missionary would get his or her own jar of peanut butter and jelly!  Haha, we know how to party in Nicaragua Managua Sur!  But in addition to our sandwich fixings, we also received these cool carved wooden pencil / missionary name tag holders, 72-hour kits, and ziploc bags to protect our scriptures.  The gifts really were perfectly suited to our needs and very thoughtful, which I loved!  The other highlight of the multi-zone was seeing and talking to Hermana Richins again after over three months.

 

We got home from the multi-zone at 7:00 PM, and that´s when things get crazy.  We went to see if Elieth and Juan Carlos were home, since Elieth was our possibility for baptism on Saturday.  However, we had kind of given up on the chance that she would be baptized this week because her mom told us on Thursday that she wasn´t home and that she and Juan had gotten drunk to celebrate the 24th.  Wait, I already summarized this in my letter to President Russell, so let me just copy and paste to save time:

 

¨Elieth and Juan Carlos were super indecisive about the idea of marriage.  They wouldn´t give us a firm answer until Tuesday that they wanted to get married instead of separated.  To our deep disappointment, Juan Carlos drank guaro all last weekend after staying sober for a month, so we knew he would have to wait to be baptized. Then, we thought our baptismal candidate Elieth had fallen through on Thursday morning when we went to review the interview questions and her mother told us that she and her husband had celebrated the 24th by getting drunk (like the rest of Managua, it seems). However, on Friday night after the Multi-zona when we went to search for them one last time, we found out that Elieth was still clean with respect to the Word of Wisdom. One quick interview later, and we were left with a little under 20 hours to plan a wedding and a baptism! I was a world-class procrastinator before my mission, but with all the stress of these last-minute baptisms, I think I might return home forever cured of my bad habit.¨ :)

 

So, to spare you the stressful details of contracting a lawyer at 9:00 AM for a 5:00 PM wedding and buying a cake and decorations and searching for witnesses and finding baptismal clothes and reminding our investigators that they needed to go to church in the morning... Saturday happened, and Elieth and Juan Carlos got married!  How fitting that my first wedding in the mission should happen on Mom and Dad´s wedding anniversary?!  Then Elieth got baptized.  Ah, they were so happy.

 

Anyway, that was my week!  I hope yours was wonderful as well!

Love,

 

Hermana Hansen

 

Photos:

 

1) Christmas dinner number 1

2) Christmas dinner number 2 (note the looks of apprehension)

Week 29: Stress ´n Blessin´s

Hola, Familia!

I think this week wins the prize as the most stressful week of my entire mission.  The good news is that with the greatest opposition come the greatest blessings!  Here we go with the ¨stress and blessings:¨

Blessing: Betania got baptized!  And she had the support of her father in the baptismal service, although hardly anybody came.

Stress: We couldn´t find Betania all week for her scheduled baptismal interview and were completely stressed out of our minds about it.  I had a great study of Jacob 5 and we talked in our companionship about how God is the Lord of the vineyard and that we can do all we can, but sometimes we have to work and prune and then wait a little longer for the good fruit to come.  Then on Friday night, one of the APs and one of our zone leaders came to work with us, and we finally located Betania at 8:50 PM.  After a speedy interview, the elders told us she´d be getting baptized at 9:00 the next morning.  Woohoo!  But the stressful part: finding her father to sign the baptismal record to give permission (she´s 17), calling the ward mission leader and the bishop (and we didn´t have ¨saldo¨ so we couldn´t call anyone), filling the font (and there were no keys, so we had to hop the glass and then the Elders helped us by filling countless garbage cans full of water and hauling them to the font to fill it in time), finding baptismal clothes, giving talks and a musical number, etc.... By 10:00 AM, we were completely exhausted, but happy.  And then we cleaned the church with sweet Geovanny (recent convert) for two hours.

Blessing: Miguel Briones continues to be a miracle.  On Thursday, he opens the gate with a big smile and his three grown children and wife all gathered to listen to us.  He read his pamphlet and the chapter we left him in the Book of Mormon.  He had good questions.  We felt the Spirit, and laughed, and committed them to come to church.  They fed us dinner and gave us cake because it was the son´s birthday.  And again on Sunday, he and his wife were all ready and were at church before we were.  Ahh, investigators like this make missionary work easy!

Stress:  We moved on Monday.  And we don´t know anybody who has a pickup truck, so we walked around in the street looking for pickups and asking if people would be willing to move our stuff if we paid them.  Talking to people is what missionaries do best!  Mission accomplished, and it was less painful than expected.  The new house is BIG and far away from the church and our lunch appointment.  It also smells like cigarettes.  But hey, it has TWO working sinks, which makes it the most luxurious place I´ve lived on my mission.  We had a hard time sleeping the first few nights because of the noise and smell and unfamiliarity of it all, but now we´ve basically adjusted.

Blessing:  We had a surprise Stake Christmas Music Fireside on Sunday.  Wow, it was powerful!  Forgive me for thinking Nicaraguans can´t sing. :)  The biggest highlight was seeing ¨mi gente¨ from Barrio Monte Fresco.  I got to see Yasmina (wife of Elmer) who got baptized after I got transferred.  Wow, she is so changed!  Before she was very emotionally guarded and rarely smiled.  Yesterday, she was the one who greeted me and gave me a big hug and smile.  AHHHH!  The gospel changes lives.  It makes us HAPPY!  Let it make you happy!

Stress:  We visited more less-actives this week, because the ward is seriously struggling with church attendance.  We learned some things that make our job a whole lot harder... but we´re going to press forward with faith.  The gospel is perfect, even if members and church leaders are not.  Hold fast to the scriptures, to prayer, and keep the faith!

Ah, so much more happened, and I can´t tell it all.  I guess we´ll have to wait until Thursday to fill you in on the rest!

I love you!!  Merry Christmas!

-Hermana Hansen

1) We found this giant, artistic Nativity scene in a house on a dirt road in the middle of Nicaragua.  Too bad the owners don´t want to come to church with us.

2) Betania´s baptism!

3) Happy birthday to my favorite little brother!  I hope you have a fantastic day!

4) Here´s my new bathroom!  The shower is basically like a strong drinking fountain, but at least there´s running water. :)

Week 28: And I`m back!

Hey, all!

So, the Lord loves us a lot.  We decided to look for the miracles this week instead of expecting disappointments.  As a result, it was a fantastic week!  We also had some major stresses/frustrations/sadnesses, but it`s all part of the process to help us become better missionaries and better people.

Miracles:

-Miguel Briones!  We contacted him in the street.  He`s about 50 years old and has attended church once before.  We set up a return appointment and asked us to bring a Book of Mormon.  The miracle part: when we went back for the return appointment, he was actually home!  And he was ready to receive us with his two grown daughters.  He hesitantly accepted a baptismal date for January 10th.  We haven`t taught him a lot yet and he couldn`t come to church because he had to work, but it was a tender mercy for us in the moment.

-Evelin Ruiz!  She`s been inactive for seven years and we just happened upon her house.  She let us in and was super happy to listen.  She said that she felt the Spirit when we were there, and that she missed that in her life.  Another tender mercy!

-Maura Artola!  She`s one of our investigators (about 50 years old) who had committed to come to church this week.  When we passed by on Sunday morning, she wasn`t going to come.  But we did all we could to get her excited about church and all the blessings she would receive for coming.  And then at 9:30... she walks into Sacrament Meeting.  Woohoo!

Funnies:

-We passed by Miguel and Clarissa`s house (an older less-active couple, the husband is blind.  The same one who had the injured toe several weeks ago, remember?)  and saw Clarissa trying to climb over the gate because it was locked from the inside and Miguel couldn`t find the key.  So I offered to hop the gate to help them out.  My companion boosts me up and Miguel tries to help me over from the other side.  The issue is this: I was wearing a skirt and Miguel is blind.  An awkward moment followed.  And in the end of it all, Miguel found the key on his own and the whole mission was for naught.  My companion couldn`t stop laughing.

-Hermana Gomez stepped on a giant dead rat and it was the grossest thing I`ve ever seen.

-Our ward mission leader invited us to his son`s sixth grade graduation party and asked me to give a spur-of-the-moment spiritual thought.  You might be surprised to know that ¨graduation¨ doesn`t appear in the topical guide... I settled on Ammon`s glorying in the Lord instead of boasting in his own strength.  I hope all of the non-member friends and family members present were inspired...  The mission teaches you to think on your feet!

Growth:

-It was interview week with President Russell!  I learned that I need to be more effusive.  You know that quote in Preach My Gospel by Elder Holland that says we need to be devastated when our investigators don`t keep their commitments?  In our mission, we call that ¨the show.¨ When people make good decisions, we get super excited and give them lots of praise.  When they don`t, we really show our disappointment.  They need to see how the Lord feels when we sin.  It`s something that has been hard for me to learn to do.  However, I followed President`s counsel and as a result, Maura came to church!  I realized that in order to be effective, we need to be willing to change.  Complacency = pride.  Pride impedes progress.  The Lord is most able and willing to work with us when we are humble and teachable.

-I went on divisions with the sister training leaders on Friday.  Ah, it was such a nice break to leave my area and not stress about the numbers or anything - just focus on preaching the gospel and learning from the example of my leaders!  Wow, these sisters are powerful.  They make missionary work look easy!  I came away with good ideas to put into practice in my own teaching and area.

Anyway, time to go because I have to move into a new house today.  That issue deserves its own hour of email time, it`s been such a complete headache and stress.  But the good news is, we are not homeless for another month or so until we get to move again.  Woohoo!

I love you lots!

-Hermana Hansen

P.S. I only took photos of houses this week... maybe I`ll include a couple photos of the bathrooms to give you a feeling for why I`ve been stressed this week.  Don`t worry, we`re not going to live in either of these places...

1) This one`s not bad.  The only problem is that we`d share it with four other people.

2) The shower of that same house.

3) The shower is behind that blanket on the left, but there`s only running water for a few hours in the middle of the night. And the toilet is brand new!