Monday, August 19, 2013

so... ya'll. this is going to be split up cuz I'm sending a bunch of pictures :) and I can only send one an email. hope you like random cuts in the convo. Pero this first pictures is called. The miracle of toes.
 eh. k not so much. But remember like a year ago when I hurt my back being a buff woman at college and could barely reach past my knees? yeah. those were pathetic days. I felt like an old person asking people to help me tie my shoes. long story short: I have never been able to touch my toes. weakness. so I realized this weakness. though small it was still pesky and i have since stretched almost every morning. little by little. UNTIIIIILLLLLLLLLL: LOOK! 

gahahaha I like about screamed like a banshi with joy. I can now touch my head to my knee and wrap my hands around the bottom of my feet. so moral of the story is weakness rock. Through weakness you can be made strong and have your faith strengthened in the enabling power of the atonement. Its real. it works. Man alive it works. Also the gift of tongues is real. Since I've been training suddenly I can follow the conversation. These last two weeks have been harder then harder but SO FUN AND AMAZING! I understand I understand. which only increases the fact that I adore Filipinos.  I seriously love all the teens in the ward. They're our ward missionaries. Its... an adventure. *sigh* ah so is life but I love them more then anything. theyre so funny.


so sister Mcphie. Her family is from scotland. LeRue Bruce is her great grandma, but yeah so dad that's it for now. I'll work on more for next week. But this picture is our transportation. 


eh heh heh. so illegal. so fun. When in the pines. Do as the pinoys. This is shiela one of our killer rc. She's going to serve a mission. yes life it worth it. hmmm other adventures this week... I got my second potential mother in law invitation. haha. at one of our appointments with these amazing members. I let it slip I want to visit here again post mish. as I'm leaving she goes: Hey! when you come back you can marry my son! uhh... yeah. maybe. ha so I'm pretty sure a lot of american moms think the same thing. like I want this person to marry into my family. people in the pines are just a lot more open about it. so im like... uh next time na lang! a favorite put off of people here. Sister Mcphie was sick this week. she was seriously a zombie child saturday and was all I want to go out and save souls. no. you will not. you will stay home and rest child. good news is she's all better now :) yay. 

k this last people is called how legit people do laundry. 

 so when sister mcphie was being an of the dead so sick you need to get better and rest and stop killing yourself for the work child I was doing laundry. oh man alive. It was paradice. me. the laundry. a down pour of rain. and... david. oh yes. davie enchilada was right there serenading me through it all. yayaya  oh holy night. sing for MEEEE. mmm. it was pretty great wont lie. I love laundry. im still alive from the wimpy typhoon. however this week at church it decided to flood. It was all satans doing im sure because we had SO many solid people lined up for church but rain likes to change things. you have not SEEN rain like this. awesome. so basically we got soaked BUT we found one investigator to come to church. his name is jerry. yes. awesome right. starts with the name. but oh man. earlier this week we were led to him through a series of down right miracles. thats all this work is. I LOVE IT MORE THEN ANYTHING. I'm totally signing up for the 2 year program when it comes out. I love missionary work :) I want to be one forever. 
-sister hansen signing out!





Monday, August 12, 2013

TYYYPPPHHHOOOOON.

(explanation for this first part so you know what is going on, my dadio aka dad sent Rachel a bunch of pictures from home:) so ya that should clear up a few things) 

Oh dadio. What an over achiever you are :) kaya mo yen (basically you can do it!) ha am I home sick???? pffft no. got way to much to do but WOWZA what happened??? you're all getting old and kirsten lost her braces. I apparently am missing monumental stuff like that. wow. I sat here like a creep taking pictures of pictures. yay for weird american status. thats me. I walk under the rain and under the sun without an umbrella. and i like being tan. so basically they might think I'm weird. over that. guess what??? theres a TYYYPPPHHHOOOOON. ha yeah. we're in laoag city. basically that means its a joke. we've got mountains. so its currently... gray. eh. maybe we'll get a real storm later and I'll go all life guard swim captain and save someones life and soul when I get transferred in a while.

 yeah but the heat before the storm was killer. im talking 37 degrees celcius... like 98 fareignheit PLUS like bath water humidity. you don't even know. heres our blessing. so in japan and korea it was 40 degrees celcius or like 104 and 500 were hospitalized. needless to say i am a brown child. one of our fellowshippers made it a point to tell me and i was all why thank you! he gave me the weirdest look (quote from mormon pride and prejudice "she was talking about the women feminist movement in jerusalem and i was all well then maybe you should call it shebrew... she gave me the weirdest look." -thats so you can have the right voice in your head) yeah they just like to be white. I will be pinoy to a point but tan is much prettier. 

oh what else. so I forgot my journal so sorry if i have to dwell on the weather and my small talking skills take over. hmmm so this week was punted beyond belief. WE DON'T SPEAK ILOCANO. news flash. apparently they don't understand a lot of our tagalog. thats ooook. we all speak the language of the spirit. ha earlier this week sister ellis and I were discussing how so many missionaries hook up after missions and i was all its cuz they speak (for example) the same 3 languages! english spanish and love! ehehehe I think I'm clever. silly me. no but really people understand the pure love of chirst. so I continue to try to love people despite the language barrier. 

sister mcphie rocks.. dad I forgot her geneology again.. remind me next week! but shes a good worker and funny and blunt. I just love all my comps :) oh ps: while we were waiting out the "typhoon" warning we made a soup called mchancallis. its about the most delicious thing ever invented. I'll make it for you sometime. oh... yes then theres my teeth.. I might have to get some work done on them. one of my rootcanals started hurting.. again. whats new. so pray for me. but if I need to convert the dentist and the Lord sees fit for me to have this challenge its going to come out of our bank account. we'll see. but it feels ok now :) 

last thing. we go to pick up our stroke victim investigator yesterday that we THOUGHT could barely walk. as soon as he saw us I doubt a fully healthy person could move as fast as him. he proceeded to hide behind a curtain... when there was a mirror on the other side of the room positioned perfectly so we could see him. it was a tad awkward. we stared at him in the mirror and he stared back. ha um... want to come to church? yeah. we had no investigators as church that day. it happens. but I'm as happy as ever. we had 3 aaawweeesome contacted MEMBER referrals. they're the way to go. I kid you not. this work is one giant miracle. I love it more then anything. its like alma the younger... when he was older. he kept preaching because he "could not rest" i want to be a missionary forever :) I love you all more then anything and literally live for your emails. share your adventures. 

sister hansen signing OUT!

Monday, August 5, 2013

ha um did i see miracles this week

ha um did i see miracles this week





 is that even a question



YYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!! I've seriously grown more this week then probably any other week of my whole life. You cant even imagine. Well so it started out with me balling. whats new. jokelang since being here I've only cried 3 times. one lesson. Once when I left sister porter and sister storey (it was the ugliest most pitiful thing ever. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH) and then again after sister gadiano left. (I LOVE HER SO MUCH) I seriously just started to cry and then she left this letter about how she knows i can do it. well that helped. ha I started crying in front of my whole district. So that's just the office elders and the ap's. and my house of sisters. yeah.. pitiful. but then I started.

 oh man mom did I feel your prayers. I seriously stopped one day and was like someone is DEFINITELY praying for me right now. so Sister McPhie and I went out. Yeah I was feeling so sick to my stomach with worry. It was the hardest thing ever. I was thinking thoughts like yeahIi kinda would be ok to be in lehi right now. like this isn't kansas anymore tottop- dorthy status. 

Well we got stalked by an 80 year old man who started singing to us and wouldn't let me teach him the gospel or accept my pamphlet. that was bummish. Lucky for us 80 year old men who like to linger longer on hand shakes cant walk or run very fast. Both of which we are capable of. eh. lost him no sweat. and we saw my other creeper "ronny" so I turned right around in the middle of the street with him only 100 ft away staring and I walked the other way. 

Call me discreet.

 ssooooo smoothe. I'm over it. I cant afford smoothness with creeps. We also went to 2 birthdays/lessons that day and got a magic show while waiting for a fellowshipper. the whole time im all is this legal? cuz magic isn't exactly the priesthood power. eh. life continues. so this week was an adventure. BUT I UNDERSTAND. The lord was SO right by my side the whole week. I just go up to people not knowing how they're going to respond or if they even speak tagalog or just ilocano and just use what I got. Man alive. I've never felt the gift of tongues so real. so so SO real.

 Dad remind me to tell you her geneology next week. Sister Mcphie that is. 

oh and these pictures are entitled: rachel... has terrible form but its not about beauty but about getting it done.

 and the other is me about to catch a ball and Sister Bacalla goes "I saw a pillar of light".

 self explanitory. haha. 

anyway back to business the ward continues to progress. before the avg attendance was like 95. now with 2 sets of missionaries its jumped to 125ish. wowza. we made a goal for 140. God helps us reach goals. I testify of it. oh last thing. In a lesson yesterday, I just kinda forced my self in. We've been bugging them non stop. but then the nanay and tatay both just started balling as we talked about repentence and faith in christ. Does the gospel change lives. um yes. that's all for now. I feel your prayers and love you more then anything. :) I miss you all :) but not enough to distract of course. keep me posted. 
Sister Hansen over and out :)