cold

HI LOVELIES!!!  sorry for the lack of a good email this week but here it is summed up in .5 seconds.

- i am learning SO MUCH about finding joy in the journey and in the daily!  because yes, Heavenly Father wants us to be good and to grow and to help others feel His strength in their lives...but He also wants us to feel His love and satisfaction.  and if we're living right and doing our best, we should welcome those feelings in.  woohooo!!  happy yeah!!!

- KAZAKHSTAN WILL GROW!!!!  in the words of brother willardson yesterday:
"the church is true and it's super true in Kazakhstan."  TRUE. 

- the people here are AMAZING

- it is COLD

- "whether you're here for yourself, someone else or a lot of someone elses, i don't know.  but i know that we are all here for the Lord, and that as we give what we can give, He will play part of His plan through us."

mannnnnnn i have to go and i'm sorry this is the worst, but i just really, really love you.  and i'm thankful for you and for this beautiful work that's going forward!  and i hope you have a lovely lovely week.  hurrah for Israel!

ALL THE LOVE,

sister hansen

other drafts of this email: 

goooooood afternoon from Astana!  

it is cold.  my insides are dying.  and life is SO HAPPY!!

this week was a good one.  Monday-Wednesday, Sister Waldie and I basically just ran all around Almaty saying goodbye to people.  we met with less actives and with actives and former investigators and with regular investigators and it was just happy business.  highlights include...

- our meeting with recent convert A!  turns out that everything is a-okay and that she's just figuring out some things like we all are.  but she really inspires me in the sense that whenever questions about the doctrine arise, instead of taking the easy path of immediate doubt she constantly shows her faith and takes them to the Lord in prayer and scripture study to get HIS answers.  and He answers her!  and that's a really powerful principle i think everyone could apply and find joy in.

- the time we met with Sister V--a Russian bab in our ward that has us clean her floors and feeds us waaay too much food--and she wouldn't let us do any sort of service (btdubs, epiphany via C. L in the branch: "God's way is love.  Christ's way is service.  And because of that, when we serve people with love, we draw closer to them."  She loves to serve AND she loves to give others chances to serve her.  At her house we're always doing something to help and it's great because it's true--that's how we get out of the natural man a little more and shape deeper bonds with the Lord.  And I hope to serve and let others serve my whole life as well!) because we were leaving and it was sad.  At one point, we sang a whole pile of Christmas hymns.  That's already happy but then she had us sing Angels We Have Heard On High 3 times in a row from start to finish so she could remember the melody and for some reason it was SO cute and happy that I just started laughing out loud during the chorus.  She just smiled and the sunlight was streaming through the window just right and it was a sparkle in my day!! 

- Wednesday night...we ate dinner at our house and then went to take a cake to a branch president's wife for her birthday.  Turns out, she and her husband and kids were out doing fun things and just the branch president's dad was there.  He is this adorable old Korean man who loves sister missionaries and despite our constant argument that we only had 5 minutes and that we could just drop it off, he had us come in and in the traditional Kazakh hospitality way, have a FULL KOREAN MEAL.  A good chat, spiritual thought about Christmas and ONE HOUR later, we were out and on our way to the C family.  They're from Russia and are so dang cute.  It's a mom and dad who are just the realest parents and three little girls.  I LOVE BEING WITH THEM.  Their house is always full of games and messes and remarks from their girls (who are like TINY BRILLIANT ADULTS) and it's not perfect but there is just so much love there.  It's a real home!  They fed us our THIRD dinner of the night and we had such a good spiritual thought and there was just a lot of love.  Plus, their 6 year old just started going to preschool and in the 3 days she's been there, has already taught about and gotten her entire class into a habit of praying over the food.  woohoo!  Missionary work!!  Families!  These things change the world in case you didn't already know.  Families CHANGE THE WORLD