today is seriously a crazy day and I don't have very much time, but this week was SO FULL OF MIRACLES and lessons and news and just SO MUCH so we'll try to get this done. here we go.
- NEW MISSION! The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve approved the creation of the Central Eurasian Mission starting July 1, and it'll be comprised of a bunch of countries like KZ, Turkey, Uzbekistan, etc etc. SO COOL.
We don't know who the President is yet but we're already praying for him. He'll live in Turkey and the missionaries will be the ones already here in KZ and in Turkey. Wow. Just wow. I'm really sad to be leaving the Novo mission but I am so humbled by and grateful and stoked for this opportunity to work in this part of the Lord's vineyard. People here are special, for real. For example...
We don't know who the President is yet but we're already praying for him. He'll live in Turkey and the missionaries will be the ones already here in KZ and in Turkey. Wow. Just wow. I'm really sad to be leaving the Novo mission but I am so humbled by and grateful and stoked for this opportunity to work in this part of the Lord's vineyard. People here are special, for real. For example...
- this week, we spent a lot of time doing service for members. Most of our work here has been with members anyway because there are a lot of less/non actives (and something I know exactly is that every soul is precious to Him. His work isn't just to add more to the fold or to increase the numbers of the church but also to strengthen those who are already here. He wants us all and no one group is more important than the other. cool cool.), but this week we didn't even share very many "spiritual thoughts". It was a lot of service, which was a cool opportunity. But it was seriously a miracle because at the end of the week, we received two new referrals within two minutes of each other (one woman randomly called us asking if we could meet and after we hung up, the elders sent us the number of another woman who wanted to meet with us) and that night we had a meeting with one of our investigators, G. She is SO sweet and has such a good heart and all this stuff and we were teaching her the first lesson. The spirit was so strong and it was just beautiful and it was a privilege to be a part of. But theeen we started talking about the Book of Mormon and she started testifying to us. I wish I could paint this picture for you...she's 30 and so innocent and just good and always speaks really matter-of-factly, and was just casually telling us that this book changed her life and helped her quit smoking and protected + strengthened her throughout all these situations. When we asked her if she would pray to know the truth for herself--to test Moroni 10:3-5--
" 3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.
4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
she just looked at us and said "I already know it's true. Through the power of the Holy Ghost."
....oh. okay.
hahahah but for real. SHE IS A MIRACLE. We invited her to be baptized and she said she already knows she will; she just wants to in America or Korea. Howevaaaaa, after discussing it, we have her praying about getting baptized here in KZ on May 23. So cool. So so so cool. Like I said, people here are ready. They're finding US (p.s. every person who was baptized here in the last 2 years found the church on their own. fun fact.) and calling US and showing up with these testimonies and just need to start. They are ready. And I really believe that when we do the little things we can do--like service or spiritual thoughts given in imperfect Russian or even smiles--, Heavenly Father does the rest.
- also on Saturday we got to watch the general woman's broadcast and President Eyring's talk was killer. so so so good.
This is the highlight of President Eyring's talk. If you would like to watch it in its entirety, please click here. :)
Also, S. Carter (one of the senior missionaries, even though she's swaggier than any youth I've ever met) is wonderful and we had a chat that made my day. Sometimes I feel really tiny in what I can do. I speak garbage Russian, I don't know how to communicate with them, I'm not this or that or the other and in general, жизнь боль (life is pain). But I learned from her that all we really can do for people--in any country, in any language, in any way--is love them. Love them like the Savior would. And somehow, that is ALWAYS enough.
- yesterday was the funniest thing ever. I was wearing this reversible skirt that's kind of big and C. E and I looked great bc it was her last Sunday here aka millions of photos and all this stuff, right? Well after church ended this adorable older sister asked us if we could help her look for her phone. We said yes because we're missionaries and human beings with hearts. We then took a bus to another bus stop where we waited for an hour, and then found ourselves in the mountains of KZ. We THEEEN walked around in the mountains for 3 hours. In the mountains. In our church clothes. And it started to rain. A LOT. And my skirt that had been so wonderful when I hadn't been a mobile object started to slip. And I was wearing my glasses aka I could see nothing bc rain. And we didn't even find the phone and we were super hungry because we hadn't eaten for like 9 hours and all this stuff. And it was seriously one of the happiest experiences EVER. I was just holding my skirt up with one hand and we were soaked and freezing and looked like trash and everything was just hilarious. We laughed sooo hard. And I was reminded of Elder Wirthlin's talk, "Come What May And Love It."
This is a highlight of Elder Wirthlin's talk. If you would like to watch the full talk, you are welcome to click here.
I have a testimony that it's possible, even when you look exactly like you did when you were 11 years old (think: the photo of me at the San Diego zoo with hideous factor x12). And life is good :)
anyway. I'm lame and writing is hard but I love you all so dang much. I seriously miss you all and music and the ocean and life more and more but at the same time, I am loving this work more than I ever thought I could. Just know I love and pray for and miss you all but also that all's okay. And all will always be okay because Jesus Christ already won. How good the news.
Love you forever. Keep smiling.
Sister Hansen
"one time we had an adventure in the mountains and then a moscow man we met there took photos for us. good times (Note: This photo has been cropped to protect the identities of the missionaries, as I was not sure if every one of the missionary's identities needed to be protected, so to be safe, I just put her picture up. Thank you for your patience. -lh)."
p.s. get to serve with Sister W. this week! so sad to say goodbye to C. E but all will be okay. duh. life's a good wave. okay. bye for real. bye.
wait p.s. Colossians 2:5-6.
from me to you :) LOVES!
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