Week 47: Careful what you pray for...‏

Dearest everyone,

Happy Monday!  Hope you`re all doing well and loving living the gospel!

I`m a little short on time, so here goes:

-I had a thought this week... Be careful what you pray for.  We prayed ALL WEEK LONG to find Miguel, our most positive investigator, and he seemed to have dropped off the face of the planet.  Then on Saturday, we finally found him for an appointment in the early afternoon and taught the Word of Wisdom (and he doesn`t have any issues with it because his kidneys have been bothering him lately and he can`t drink coffee, woohoo!).  After that lesson, we proceeded to run into him about four more times during the day.  God was just making up for all those fervent prayers... be careful what you pray for.

If you pray for patience, you will contact three devout Jehovah`s Witness couples in your search for families to teach, and they will contend with you about the Plan of Salvation.

If you pray for service opportunities, you will spend two hours hand-washing two giant barrels full of dirty clothes for a recent convert who had an emergency appendectomy.

If you are hungry and pray for Heavenly Father to provide some food, you will be gifted 19 mangos in one day.  Therefore, be careful what you pray for.

Hahaha, it`s been a good week.  Very trying, but that`s what makes us stronger!  It`s still hot.  Several of our investigators who had attendances at church have decided they don`t want to be baptized.  We`re dropping a bunch of people and searching for lots of new investigators.  But we also saw tender mercies of the Lord!  Most of them have to do with food, haha...

1) Hna. Melixza made us dinner!  The third time we`ve had dinner as a companionship, that is to say, in the last ten weeks.

2) Hno. Mario made us tuna sandwiches and gave us red soda at 8:30 on Sunday night when we were famished and exhausted.  And he came to church in a white shirt and tie and received the Aaronic priesthood!

3) Hno. Oscar has been great about accompanying us in our hopes to find Miguel at home.  He came with us four times this week and wasn`t even mad when we didn`t find him and had to return home in vain.

Anyway, time to finish.  I know that Heavenly Father knows and loves each of us.  I have felt His love in this week!  I hope you have too!

I LOVE YOU!

-Hermana Hansen

I hope these are the right pictures... Tan lines and mangos!

Week 46: No seas, pues, cual hàragan... la lucha es real‏

Dear Family and Friends,

Hey, how`s it going?  Actually, I already know that you`re all doing GREAT things, because you`ve sent me emails telling me so!  Thanks a million for your news, it makes me smile all week long.

Well, this week was... hot, as usual.  We did regular missionary things, and tried not to fall asleep or sweat to death from the heat. :)  But the best news...

Nohevia and Victoria got baptized!!  And it was the most beautiful baptismal service I`ve had on my mission.  The font was filled on time, Nohevia`s family and friends came, our ward mission leader and the other auxiliary leaders were present, those assigned to give talks came, my companion and I sang a special musical number, and there were refreshments.  Basically, it all happened like baptisms are supposed to happen, but sometimes the ideal is not reality in Nicaragua.  Oh, and one of our investigators who we had invited came, and Nohevia`s dad was there as well, who is not a member.  The Spirit was strong, and I know that these two recent converts can become faithful members of the church!

Anyway, it was a joy to see the change in Victoria especially this week.  She was still unsure of a lot of things due to some lies and weird rumors that her family had told her.  In the closing prayer of one of our lessons, she said, ``Help me to know that this is true, although I`m pretty sure it is.`` And thanks to some stellar fellowshipping by the new branch president`s wife and the relief society president, Victoria now feels at home in the church and like it`s her family.

Other happy moment:  Nohevia (who was SUPER prepared for her baptism) hugged us after her baptism with a huge smile and simply said, ``Thank you for everything!`` 

Well, I don`t have a lot of time.  There were a couple of funny moments... like when two investigators in a row in the street saw us walking and said, ``Hey, you didn`t come when you said you would!`` ... which was a lie, but it was still funny that it happened one and then the other as we finished setting another appointment with the first one.  There were a lot of super stressful moments, due to the fact that I`m still learning to love my leaders and their high numbers goals that sometimes stress me out of my mind.  But... we just need to trust in the Lord, pray hard, work hard, and study hard to feel better.  

The gospel is true!  If you haven`t reached perfection yet, try not to beat yourself up.  And don`t let anyone else beat you up for that either!  Heavenly Father knows EVERYTHING you think and feel and do, so just talk to Him and let Him help you.

I love you LOTS!  XXOOxoXoO

-Hermana Hansen

Photos:

1) Baptism!  Nohevia is the taller one, and Victoria is the one with cutie Rosemary in front.

2) Chocolate prizes from district meeting stand no chance against Granada`s heat

3) I`m finally legal!! Guess who got a residence card last Monday?

4) Snapshot of Granada!  Catholic cathedral, motorcycle, Toyota Corolla (one of about 35 that are constantly haunting me in the streets... such a great car!) and the touristy horse-drawn carriage that Granada is famous for.

5) Exotic fruit!  Guayaba

6) Exotic fruit!  Nispera

Week 45: We have a branch president!!!

Hello, all!

This week somehow felt eternal but also went by in the blink of an eye.  Let me tell you about it in positives, negatives, and funnies!

Positive:  One of the sister training leaders, Hermana Rivas, worked in trio with us on Tuesday!  I loved the way she kept the work fast-paced and invited everyone to be baptized.  Sometimes I hold back from extending the baptismal invitation if I don`t think they`re going to progress, but I have to remember that God is in charge and he knows which of His children are ready to accept the invitation to act.  So I can`t be afraid to invite people to baptism in a street contact!  Basically everyone accepts anyway, because that`s how Nicaragua works, haha.  The hard part is helping them progress and come to church.  Which leads me to my next positive...

Positive: CHURCH!  They called a branch president!  Pancasan has progressed from having only a branch secretary in January to now having half a branch presidency!  The negative is that we arrived after the sacrament because we were bringing investigators and President Russell was there, but still... Anyway, more positives: many of our investigators came to church, and several less-actives that we had visited this week as well.  Ah, my heart is so happy to see people I love at church!

Funny:  We went to explore el Fortìn, a part of our area that we had never been to before, to visit some less actives.  Wow, it was `` puro campo`` and so pretty!  I understand now why they don`t come to church; it`s like a 45 minute walk through super dusty shade-free roads and there is zero form of transportation other than bikes or horses.  Anyway, we contact this one house and a 20-something year old guy comes out and pulls out chairs, greets us cordially, and acts like he knew we were coming.  So we ask if he`s a member of the church, and he says he got baptized 15 years ago.  We start asking questions about his family, how he`s doing with reading the Book of Mormon, etc.  He answers that he hasn`t been to church lately for work.  We even read part of a chapter in the Book of Mormon and call him to repentance (with love).  As we`re leaving, we ask to meet his mom, who was cooking in the back, and we ask when she`s going to join us at church.  She answers, ``Which church? We`re Catholic.``  Turns out the baptism that the muchacho was referring to was his Catholic baptism.  They`re not members at all.  Oh, it was so hilariously awkward.  We invited them energetically to church, left quickly, and then died laughing on the forever long dirt road back to our regular area.

Negative:  Nohebia hasn`t talked to her mom yet about her baptism and postponed for next week so she can tell her with time to adjust to the idea.  Our zone leaders told us we lacked boldness for letting her change her date, but I love Nohebia and the Spirit told me it was the right thing to do.  Praying that all goes well with that when we visit her again tomorrow and that she can be baptized on Saturday.

Positive: We had a barbecue at the mission home today as a zone for being the most successful zone during the month of March.  We ate hamburgers and brownies with ice cream, played ping-pong and foosball, and watched Meet the Mormons.  Ah, it was so good!  And made me rather trunky, but I loved it!

Turns out there were a lot more positives than negatives.  Probably because it`s just more fun to tell you about the good things!  Know that I am learning and working and loving my mission.  There are so many hard moments, but I know I`m where I`m supposed to be and doing what I`m supposed to be doing!  Heavenly Father loves me and He loves all of you!

I love you too!

-Hermana Hansen

photos:  I got brave enough to cut my hair!  Ten months of sun damage and split ends finally motivated me to take action.  I look like a trout in my scared face photo, but everything turned out well with the exception of one awkward piece right in front that is half the size of the rest.  Oh well, nothing time won`t cure.

Sweet Hermana Dorita, who is one of my role models in this life.  She`s emaciated with diabetes and a multitude of other health problems, and basically all of her children are inactive and don`t do much to support her.  But she is fiesty and hilarious and never loses the faith!  She does all in her power to get to church on Sundays and pay her tithing.  I took this photo to send to her daughter who is on a mission in Brazil.  I hope she doesn`t get too alarmed with how skinny her mom is!

Week 44: Semana Santa‏

Dear all,

Woohoo!!!  Wasn´t conference just great?!  I´m still on a spiritual high.  Now let´s talk about this week... Semana Santa.

So here´s a brief description of what happens during Semana Santa in Granada:

-It gets REALLY hot.  What else is new?

-Everyone puts out their kiddie pools and children and adults alike chill in their littlle oasis.

-Half of the world goes to the ¨playa¨ which is actually just the super crowded shore of the filthiest lake in Nicaragua.

-The men drink a lot of alcohol.

-There are Catholic and evangelical processions in the streets where people follow a statue of Jesus carrying the cross.

-We, the LDS missionaries, run around the empty streets handing out the pass-along cards of ¨Gracias a que Él Vive¨ (Because He Lives) and invite people to General Conference.

Despite all of this, I felt really happy this week!  I´m starting to love my investigators, the less-actives, and my area in general a lot more.  And we started writing our daily blessings and miracles as a companionship, which helped us see MORE miracles and blessings.  Speaking of that, let´s talk about Conference:

Some of the members of our branch got excited about inviting their family members to come to conference, and as a result we had 11 investigators in the Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning sessions!  And we visited Victoria yesterday to see how she liked it, and she was touched by the talk on Saturday afternoon about repentance... ¨It was I, but I am no  longer that person.¨  We´re working on getting her ready for baptism on the 18th!  Also, Nohebia came with her super evangelical Mom (who sometimes preaches in her church using the Book of Mormon... not sure if I mentioned that in a previous letter, but it was one of my mission bucket list items that has now been crossed off!).  Other positive investigators are Guadalupe and Marlon, who each were ready when we passed by in the taxi to pick them up.

Ah, I love conference!  Three blissful sessions of air conditioning and soft benches and hearing the word of God from the mouths of His chosen servants.  I feel so blessed to know the gospel!  Here are my conference goals that I want to share with you:

-Fear God, not man

-Teach the Plan of Salvation more often and more thoroughly

-Be a Shiblon and work diligently without expecting recognition or comparing myself to others

-Fall in love with the gospel daily

-Help less actives feel my and God´s love

-Notice the Lord´s hand in all things

Whew, I´m running out of time, so here are some quick photos!  I love you a LOT!  Live the gospel and be happy!

-Hermana Hansen

1) Thank you, O3 YM/YW for your letter!  You lifted my spirits and made me feel loved!

2) With Hermana Melixza, our lunch cita, on her birthday with her Minion cake

3) Photo taken from the top of the Merced, that cathedral I took a photo in front of a few weeks ago.  Isn´t Granada gorgeous?

4) With Hermana Lord, fellow Orem-ite!  KayAnn knows her!  Also from Orem is Hermana Alexa Ortiz, who came this week!

5) Volcano Mombacho!

Week 43: Gracias a que Èl Vive‏

Hola, everyone!

It`s almost Semana Santa, and boy, is this sun hot!  Semana Santa in Catholic, caliente Granada on the same weekend as General Conference is not for the faint of heart.  But hey, I had a great week!  Let me tell you about it:

-Did divisions with Hermana Lagos for the fourth time in two changes.  I call her my ``other companion`` with all the time we`ve worked together.  Seriously, we are so darn productive!  The day always passes slowly because we get so much done, but we had fun in her area visiting recent converts and less actives, finding new investigators and setting baptismal dates, and talking throughout the day.  

-Belkys got baptized!  I thought she wasn`t going to pass her interview because she told us on Monday that she believed in the Virgin and didn`t see the need to be baptized, but it happened!

-We saw miracles on Sunday!  I was worried because we hadn`t committed as many people as usual during the week, and in these past weeks, we haven`t had a lot of positive investigators at church.  But the Lord blessed us in the following ways: 1) Angela and her daughter Katherine were standing outside, dressed and ready to receive us at 8:30 AM.  Angela even decided not to go to work to go to church instead.  And we`ve only had one lesson with them!  2) Marlon, who told us flat out last week that he wouldn`t go to church because Barcelona was playing at that hour, was sitting on the church steps when we arrived with Belkys for her confirmation.  We hadn`t met with him all week either, but he decided to meet his commitment with God and go to church!  Now he has a baptismal date!  3) Yuriel brought his non-member brother Franklin and Nohebia came with her sisters.  Nohebia didn`t feel ready to be baptized this week, but she has a new date for the 11th.

-We went to the general Women`s broadcast and, miraculously, a recent convert who I`ve never seen come to church accepted our invitation to accompany us, as well as her non-member sister.  Also, the daughter of another recent convert (also a former investigator of mine) came when we invited her.  I missed the first part of the conference due to arriving late and then standing at the door to wait for the other two investigators slash converts to come, but what I heard was wonderful!  Soul-filling, that stuff.  How anyone can listen to the prophets speak and not feel the Spirit is beyond my comprehension!  Ah, President Eyring... I can`t wait for conference!

-Hey, go check out the Church`s ``Because He Lives`` campaign.  We basically can only use the little pass-along cards due to inavailability of internet here, but even that is powerful!  I KNOW that my Redeemer lives!  Take a minute to think of that fact.  How has He blessed your life?  How can you better serve Him?

I love you lots!  Thanks for your prayers!  Pray for me not to melt this week!

-Hermana Hansen

I hope these are the right pictures, because I can`t see them...

1- the zone (minus two sisters) ready for our water balloon fight to celebrate 40 baptisms this month.  And because it`s ridiculously hot.

2- Belkys` baptism!

3- Happy Birthday, Rebekah!  I thought about putting just the birthday hat, but then I realized that you`re probably more excited about graduating than turning 18, so now you have both hats!

Week 42: Onward, ever onward!‏

Dearest everyone,

Wow, what a week!  Jumping right in:

On Monday night at 10:00 PM, our zone leader called us to say that we all had interviews with President Russell in the morning.  Surprise!  We sprung into action, because interviews mean that we also get a cleaning check on our apartment by Hermana Russell.  In the next couple hours, we swept, mopped, scrubbed, disconnected the refrigerator to begin defrosting, organized, etc. to prepare for the morning.  Exhausted, we collapsed into bed.

The alarm went off at 6:30 and guess what?  There was no power.  Or water.  In all of Granada.  Being the oh-so-prepared missionaries that we are, my companion and I had a grand total of two water bottles stored up for emergencies.  Therefore, I proceeded to bathe myself with a single water bottle and some baby wipes by the light of the rising sun.  And we arrived for our interviews on time, though not quite as fresh as we might have liked.  Oh, the moments that missions are made of!

In my interview, President told me that we need to be a lot more bold when extending commitments.  We can`t be nice when they don`t keep those commitments, because we understand the eternal consequences.  We`re working on being more bold, powerful, and loving.

On Thursday, we had a conference with both missions in Nicaragua.  Everyone was crazy excited, with rumors flying about dividing missions and so forth.  Anyway, we woke up at 3:45 in the morning to get ready and be in Managua by 6:30 AM.  It`s the first time in my mission that the entire mission has been together!  I got to see my ``mom``, Hermana Aquian, as well as all my former companions and other hermanas that I love.  Hermana Gomez came with an envelope full of notes from some of my favorite people in Loma Linda.  Oh my, Geovanny and Erwin each wrote some of the best letters I have ever received in my whole life!  And I`ve received a lot of amazing letters, mostly while I`ve in the mission from all of you.  But seriously, those notes lifted me up and made my whole mission worth it!  Other sad news is that some of my favorite people in Loma Linda and Monte Fresco are passing through some major trials.  I think of that talk about the blesssings and burden of discipleship... by Elder Holland, I think.

Anyway, returning to the whole point of the conference... We heard from Bishop Dean M. Davies and Elder Adrian Ochoa, as well as the testimonies of both mission presidents.  We got to greet each general authority individually, all 400 or so of us missionaries.  They shared the importance of finding answers in the scriptures and maintaining an eternal perspective.  We were all a little... surprised at the whole conference.  No major announcements, no points of training, no ``machetes`` as we call those calls to repentance.  But it was testimony-building, so that was good!

Anyway, life is good and life is hard.  Sometimes you`re trying your best and your investigators still aren`t choosing to progress.  You need to learn to rely completely on the Savior to continue becoming better yourself and to be an instrument in His hands.  I`ve noticed that the most successful and happy missionaries (and PEOPLE, for that matter) just love everybody.  They love them enough to tell it to them straight and call them to repentance, and they respond because they know it`s motivated by love.  I`m striving to develop greater love!

I love all of you!  Thank you to each of you who has written me inspiring, uplifting, love-filled messages.  I will do my best to respond!

-Hermana Ali Hansen

photos: Happy birthday, Hermana Reyes!

With my mom, Hermana Aquian!

Week 41: Reading, eating, animals, attitude, and more!‏

Hello to my wonderful family and friends!

Well, it`s been a week.  The Lord seeth fit to try our patience and our faith.  We reap what we sow.  Lots of lessons learned!  I`ll jump right in with what I jotted down on my sticky note to write today:

Reading: My companion and I were lamenting the fact that hardly anyone here reads.  That includes members, investigators, and recent converts.  How can we expect people to progress, gain testimonies, and remain firm in the gospel if they never read a few pages of a pamphlet, let alone the Book of Mormon?  Anyway, the Lord has a sense of humor.  Later that day, we were walking down the street and Hermana Quezada spotted an elderly man sitting outside of a house reading a pamphlet of the Restoration where we had left one with a different family member the week earlier.  Obviously, we had to go talk to him!  He was friendly and accepted the invitation to come to church and get baptized.  Then he didn`t come to church after we had a second lesson and recommitted him to come, but that`s beside the point!  I learned that I should never complain and just trust in the Lord instead.  He is directing His work, and He knows how to help His children gain testimonies, be baptized, and remain converted.  Perhaps it`s not through reading, I don`t know.  It`s hard sometimes because of the low education level, vision problems, and culture that don`t encourage reading.  However, I know that Heavenly Father will still accomplish his work here!

Eating:  I ate pig liver for the first time this week.  Also, cow liver.  And we had our once-a-transfer dinner with the Ramirez family, who are wonderful.  There is such a difference between homes where the Spirit is present and homes where He is not!

Animals:  We killed a scorpion in our bathroom this week.  Also, we have mice.  We let in a cat that often sits outside our door, and within five minutes he leapt onto my bed to catch a mouse that was scurrying up the wall and walked outside triumphant with his prize.  It was rather spectacular.  Other stories: a chicken flew into my companion`s lap and scratched her arm.  A dog came up close behind me when we were contacting and barked really loudly and angrily... my companion nearly wet herself when I practically jumped out of my skirt with eyes wide from the shock!

Super Members:  Sweet Hermana Dorita has diabetes and is emaciated and frail.  Her youngest daughter is on a mission, and her other children don`t support her a lot.  Yet despite her pain and illness, she is fiery and faithful.  She fell this week and had a huge bruise on her cheek, but she was still there in church with a smile.  Singing her favorite hymn with her, ``Praise to the Man`` was a highlight of my week!  Also, we went to visit recent convert Hermano Mario on a particularly difficult day, and he just made us so happy with his comments of, ``So I was with a Jehovah`s Witness the other day, and even though I`m new in the Church, I was able to explain and defend the truth... ``, ``I have two friends that want to change their lives and come to church.  My plan is to pass by their houses to bring them with me on Sunday,`` and ``I was out of town for work driving tour buses the last two weeks, but I attended church where I was and really enjoyed the meetings.``

Attitude: I let myself get stressed and disappointed this week when basically all of our baptismal possibilites for March have now fallen through.  Also, the pressure for numbers and everything was getting to me, and Sunday was rather trying as well.  I realized that it`s really easy to lose perspective: we can get so caught up in the little details that we forget what we`re really trying to do here.  We forget who is our perfect Guide and our Father.  It doesn`t help anything to get depressed!  I`ve recommitted myself to work hard and work happy, continuing in obedience and strengthening my faith.  It`s not good to compare yourself to others or judge them, ever!  It`s easy to think, ``Why are those hermanas baptizing a ton when they`re not obedient?  Why am I not as friendly or as bold as so-and-so?  Why is she training and not me?`` These thoughts are sinful!  They are not faith-promoting or charity-promoting.  We MUST trust in Heavenly Father and His plan 100%.  The mission causes you to come face-to-face with your weaknesses.  Ether 12:27!  Repentance!

Anyway, I`m out of time, but I just want to say that I love you a LOT!  My family is amazing.  I read three or four of your letters that I have printed off over the months when I was feeling down, and they were an answer to prayer.

Keep on keeping on!  I love you ALL!

-Hermana Hansen