January 19th (catching up on all the emails..)

im sooo sorry ya'll. this is a dumpy letter. we just had a zone activity and have like walang time. plus i forgot my journal... and my memory is that of an old man right now soo let me think... um our baptism fell through! word of wisdom... and he lied about it... its always the best. its ok. we'll just postpone it. he WILL be baptized. i hope. um yeah and transfers are in a week and a little... thats freaky. i feel i just got to dingras. may i never transfer this is the promised land. ill never stop saying that but i just love these people so much. on sunday our bml (branch mission leader) at our mcm is all how about you all ask your president if you can NOT transfer. im for it! haha except im more for just being obedient. so we'll see what happens. haha the other day we decided to contact in our neighbor hood. love your neighbor right? :) well we were punted a lot. we found this filipino guy.. his wife lets on he grew up in LA... so im all you know english...? and he goes... yuuupp... yeah. i freaked. no one speaks english with walang accent here. probably scared him off too cuz he went inside and didn't come back out. haha whoops.. 'merica! well thats all for now. itll be way better next week i promise! love you all! :)

-sister hansen

hellloooo once again family and friends from the land of zion! ... er.. dingras. they're one and the same. so for the adventures this week: well lets just start off with a good line, brought to you by pastor bob (so we live in the parkinglot of a school and all the schools are like religious here so we here pastor bob every morning on his microphone... and he speaks english. even bettaaah! hah) "Dear students! this is the year of the horse... even horses cut their hair... all of you must have proper horse haircuts before you take the exam!" ahhaahahhaha yeeeess pastor bob. yes they must. ok. i laughed. i just had to share.

 

 want to hear some miracles. ok. like you have a choice :) so missionary life goes kinda like this. you're sitting in a lesson and the husband isn't there just the wife so you pray. and during your prayer you ask that he will return quickly (because he just left and its not likely he'll come back soon) and right as you pray that you hear a roar of a motorcycle pulling in and you say amen quick and poof! he walks in. well hello there family lesson.

 

Other fun moments of the week. we met this guy who's friends with a TON of LA other member guys. so he's always out playing basketball. well we're walking down the street toward the basketball court and he dribbles off and dissappears (smoooooth) ha well we walk past get punted at a house of another LA where they're all drinking and he shouts to us drinking is my new religion! (sure it is :) *patronizing voice*) we'll be back tatay when you're not lasing! (drunk) so we head back and we hear the pounding of a ball in the distance. heh heh heh. so we creep around the corner and im pretty sure angels in heaven were playing the jaws theme music and i whispered we got him! yeah totally cornered him and told him we're going to visit him and baptize him (minus the baptize part we'll save that for the first lesson) but it was great :)

 

 hahah man i love this work. so so so so so so sosososoosososososos much! like you want to baptize someone? pray for the oppurtunity and then be obeidient and watch the Lord throw people into your path. its awesome. for the awesome news. we have another baptism in less than 2 weeks before the transfer! yayay! hahah this is another member of the domingo family we just baptized. he makes me laugh. we were sitting in sacrament and our branch mission leader was giving a stellar talk about helping out the missionaries but during the talk our BML is like we pray for the missionaries. that they'll find people, that they'll be masipag (diligent) and then alfred domingo goes that they'll be maganda (pretty) and jorge continues but do we do our part? hahaha well i laughed. i realize i concentrate a lot on the funny parts of my mission but that's cuz i just love to laugh :) and i love the gospel. and i especially love it when they go hand in hand. so go out and be a missionary but keep your sense of humor. as long as it righteous. pray to find the people prepared. i promise they're out there. love you all! 

love sister Hansen

 

 

yoyoyyo.... hohoho... merry christmas

mmmmm that moment when you get your card reader cuz you have a sweet picture of you and the machette thats chilling in the custodial closet at the church (only in the pines) and you just want to share it with everyone and... your card reader breaks. sorry, lahat, no more pictures for now.

 KIRSTEN HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY SISTA! YOU ARE OLD AND BOYS LOVE YOU IM SURE BECAUSE YOUR A BABE A BEAUTIFUL AND RIGHTEOUS AND FUNNY. IM A MISSIONARY. WE KNOW THESE THINGS SO PLEASE DON'T DATE ANY WEIRDOS... OR ILL KILL THEM.

 guess what ya'll? i get to spend anther 6 weeks in zion at least. did you know the pines grew faster in membership in the church in 50 years than any other nation on earth. aw yeah. now we just got to keep those lost souls from wandering.

 Did i ever tell you about the 2 high guys in 2 weeks who told me about my great nose... yeah one of them speeds up to us on a motor cycle asks us why there's no church in solsona then tells me a british accent "I have a prominent nose" (pretty sure I told you this... act interested anyway deal?) and the other one told me I look like Angelina Jolie and my nose is great like a pyramid. You guys are weeeiiiirrddoooosss.

 hahah oh and estela and lj were baptized! They were so cute and happy. man. missionary work is just the bomb diggity. also we didn't get to watch the Christmas broadcast cuz we live like out in the boonies so you know what we did? we made a HUGE DINNER  and listened to david archuleta christmas music hymns and such to compensate. I was happy. I'll write you more next week. I really need to get some better stories for you all. but oh man oh man I love it here. party on ya'll! :) merry christmas. go serve someone and share the gospel. that's the best gift you can give :) 

-love sister hansen

Thanksgiving

Oh my goodness.... dad thank you for the updates. i feel for ali. You all should write her or something. and pray like mad for her. that would be sooo hard. pray pray pray. k since ya'll are so keen on pictures ill send ya some :) ha this is me at one of our baptismal dates houses. 

she wasn't home... so naturally i decided to practice my pig (baboy) whispering skills. and im not touching it cuz thats BAWAL. but we obviously are having a conection in this shot. Man can i just tell you about dingras? and solsona. we have like 11 people that want to be baptized this month. haha one of them got up on sunday in relief society and told us how she knows its true and how before she didn't have time to go to church because she was busy with pigs and such but then she went and she knows its true. these people are such an example to me.

this is pinky. she's a lot better with posing with the pig than i am. she's nine and read half the book of mormon. Her and her mom will be baptized this month if they keep coming to church. angel child. hahaha k funny moment of the week. actually most disgusting moment of the week. so we're chilling waiting for estela who's in her interview. Anyway so its alvin sister Banabatac Ian and elder Rodrigo. well theres this pesky fly... tries to land in my ear. well that's annoying. well that wasn't enough so it went for my lip. k that's gross stay out of my mouth pesssst. nope. it had to go the whole nine yards. so you know in princess and the frog how ray goes "a bugs got to dooo what a bugs got to doooooo!" flies up the dudes nose and he's all what in the world! plugs a nostril and blows him out. yeah i did that. with not even that much grace. pathetic. 

yeah... this is my thanksgiving... paaaarrrtttaaah. i was true my word. i ate an egg sandwich. and juice. i party like that. oh! ha i got to tell you so our conference for christmas is coming up. so we're learning this dance. lucky for me theres four different groups with different parts but one is basically the chicken dance. so theres like 12 20 year old sisters running in a circle flapping their wings and smiling of course! hahaahah k i die everytime.

hahahahahahah ok this is probably my favorite. because liahonas from like 2002 are just this great. what were they meant to be? clearly charlies angels. hahahah ok. its tooo good. i just die to my self sometimes laughing.

hahahahaha ok just look at the guys face in the upper corner. he looks like edward just about the eat bella. hahaah ok yeah this is my etertainment. now you know the real me. also a quote for you all " Behold i speak with boldness, having authority from God; and i fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear" -mormon (moroni 8:16)

(sorry it has been forever since we updated Rachel's blog. We will get back on it promise! here is her most recent letter) 

Nah the typhoon did squat here. just windy. noooo problema. haha soooo um yeah. thanks mom. that's like actually just my problem. I have half a bajillion people that want to be baptize and they all live 30 pesos worth out side of town. haha. yeah. what am I complaining about. 

This week I learned that ALL missionaries. no matter how obedient or diligent or whatever aren't always going to baptize. *cough* laoag *cough* dead area... sorta. Man I worked HARD there. but then I come here and they're all yeah I want to go to church. yeah I want to be baptized on your birthday. pffft ok! We can arrange that. They don't even know me. These people are truly converted to the gospel. I didn't do anything. Heavenly Father just gave me a plot to reap like mad for now. YUP so that's what I'm doing. And its all cuz of the members. All of them are friends or family of members. SO YA'LL GET OUT THERE BE BOLD AND TELL YOUR FAMILIES TO REPENT AND BE BAPTIZED. then you'll see a bunch of happy missionaries like me *insert cheesey smiling face* at your house all the time. Want to know what else??? IVE GOT AN EXTRA HALF HOUR TO EMAIL. yeeeesssss yeessssss wen (yes) si (yes)

pichas

so yeah. this place is a whole tub of fun. Every few days we go to solsona. and we pass by these carribou (carry-bow) their names are bessie and tess. or at least they should be. Also every morning I wake up to.... (cuz we live in the parkinglot of a school and the guard likes to pump his music) ONE... you're like a dream come truuuuue TWO just want to be with youuuuu THREE I just want you to see that you're the onllllyyy one for meeee FOUR! ... and on and on.
 well good morning to you too! hahaha

yeah. ;hmmm what else. they call me sister barbie? haha one of the high couselmans daughters hath appointed that name to me. Yes I'm tall white and have blue eyes. I suppose you may call me sister barbie.  sorry no super cool stories this week but here's some picture. I'm going to go out and try to baptize a nation now;) with the Lords help. MAN  I am SO lucky. I love this work. I love the Lord. and I LOOOOOVVVVEEE YOU ALL. have an awesome thanksgiving!!!! whenever that is... 

-sister hansen

19 going on Jeffery Holland.

(sorry every body I am behind on the post but here is her most recent one)

Ok... hmmm ha what I typically eat... sandwiches. 

I know exciting eh? ha actually I eat pancit sometimes, and noodles. Rice is also big, it is also my enemy... I shall not conform to popular beliefs.  RESIST. Ha um I had sesame noodles this week. lots of pancit. sometimes pancakes :) yesss they still have pancakes. Basically food you can cook without a microwave or oven. Lots of veggies. Sometimes I like egg plant and egg, tuna and egg over rice is good. I'll just cook for you like chef tony when I get back :) 

Weather... uh rainy. We've got mountains near by. The real storms are up north in like sanchez maria. Lets pray I go there :) really I am. I want to see it STORM. 

Ha dad that made me laugh about moses and abraham because most people here haven't heard of them either. If they have its like whoa! ang galing po kayo! (you're so smart!) then they throw out a name like Isaiah and its like watch out here comes heart failure. 

OOOOK so you would not believe this week. FIRST: DID YOU SEE CONFERENCE (pardon the delayed reaction but we just saw it yesterday) MAN ARE THEY CALLED OF GOD OR WHAT??? wow. I went around asking what was everyone's favorite was and they were all different for everyone. 

Revelation is real. prayers are answered... speaking of... ha so our some leader in our ward are basically inactive. 2 of them haven't been in months. both rm's. So this weeks letter is entitled 19 going on Jeffery Holland. 

that's right. I went and taught them. I was praying like you would not believe. I said Heavenly Father. I don't know how to call out a high up leader. Help me. I kid you not words just come to you. All those scriptures about your mouth being filled are true. You just have to start talking and have the confidence in the things you testify. God takes over.

 I basically told them they've been breaking the law of the Sabbath  I know you need a job. but you need salvation more. I said "who's will do you value more the lords or your bosses" k. I've never been so bold; but it was the way they reacted that was the craziest. 

The one was like yeah... you're right. I'm going to start looking for a new job. The other got MAJORLY DEFENSIVE. I was like whoa. chiiiiilll duuuuude. 

Basically I offended one of them. Yup. I was freaking out so I texted president. He said "if he doesn't get offended he'll just be grateful that your reminded him. Crying repentance is just like giving a bitter pill to someone who is sick and take the bitter pill to be healed" so. yup. 

I hope he doesn't hate me but its like in mosiah 13. at the beginning. read it. Abinadi. He's the former Jeffery R. Holland. umm.. 

What else. I had another investigator ask if I had a boy friend (me naievely replying to that with) no... then he goes can I apply? (sound familiar barb ;) it resulted much the same way though) I was all uhh... no. and then a kid from the ymca here texted me saying he missed me. you're a dork. I've met you once. and you bible bashed with me. go. away. 

ha ok miracle for the week. so I hit 6 months and with it this mile stone. I. Love. This. Work. SOOOO SO MUCH. but I've always prayed to be transferred. I'm just thinking no one wants to be baptized, the leaders are all trunky and its struggle town. But for the first time this week I prayed... to stay. I beeeegggggeeed heavenly father to let me stay. I love this ward with all my heart. It's not about the baptisms now.

siyempre I want baptisms. but no its about blooming where you're planted (a quote from April conference). There once was a lady who was wondering why her grand son had gone off the deep end while she worked so hard to be good. Heavenly Father said I gave him to you because I knew you'd love him no matter what he did. Bring on the struggle. 

NO body knows this area like me and I want to stay and help them. there is so much potential. Heavenly Father is so great he let me be part of the change. DAAAAAHHHH THIS WORK IS SOOOOO COOOL!!!!! talaga. 

Funny story last night an investigator gave us pepsi. I don't drink pepsi so I'm like sister mcphie you drink it under my breath. so she starts downing hers while I stall the conversation talking about Avril Levine. She was on a poster on their wall. yeeeaah. she totally noticed I slipped her my pepsi. whatevs. not smooth. itsss oooh k! love you all. mom 3 nephi 18:32. keep up the work and your uphill climb. I love you all! I want to serve forever. No lie. this work is amazing. 

ciao!

hmmm... well. we have an investigator with 4 dogs?

Ha so this week wasn't soooo exciting. Not that the other ones were either but at least typhoid and dengue make for a good story. 

We had zone conference and I saw like 50 bajillion missionaries. including Sister Gadiano, Sister Storey, and Sister Porter again. soooo good. I love them. oh. ha k well since I'm sure you're DYING to know I'll just let you know what I did with my hair.

 I got it rebonded monday. Wouldn't recommend it in America. Its probably like half a bazillion dollars there. or at least over 100. but its pretty much a chemical straighten. Its suuuper convenient. 

So our star investigator who started avoiding us for like 3 weeks told us its not her time and pretty much not to come back. um. ok. blow off salvation. It's not your time?? This is eternity we're talking about MAKE TIME. Silly siya. So I hate it when investigators go former. but we found some new ones. 

One is named Maria. She has 4 dogs. Pretty sure they'd eat me if they weren't tied up and behind a fense. ha every time we go over its like where's our welcoming committee? "tao po! (what you say to knock doors)" BARK BARK BARK. Oh there you are. Seriously they go berzerk. but she is progressing good. And her son too. He's all how did Christ perform the atonement? Do you want me to try to get all deep in tagalog cuz I'm pretty sure it'd be ugly. but I tried anyway.

 This whole work is a miracle. Man I just want to be the boldest most outgoing missionary ever but sometimes satan is all. no. Don't talk to that person you just got a prompting to talk to. Be quiet satan. you're dumb. I've got work to do. and souls to save. 

Oh there was a typhoon. Thought you should know. This wasn't a drizzle. This was a rain flying directly horizontal so bad its like a white out... but for rain sorta deal. so we stayed in. we went to the eddingtons and google mapped our house. Ah. I miss you all. but you all are probably wondering. Why is she talking about the weather. isn't that what people talk about when there's nothing else? Well that's about where my small talking skills are right now so I'm going with it. 

I still love pinoys more then anything. Every day brings new adventures and challenges. So you face them. Hmmm... a good scripture for this week is in Jacob 6. about weaknesses. really we all just need to be humbler. Like the savior. True fact. weaknesses are a blessing because they give us something to work on. When you've got no goals or anything to work for you're digressing. Weaknesses are opportunities and they rock. So do you all. Party on!

-love sister hansen