Monday, August 29, 2016

MY FAVORITES!

Hi. Ok, wow this past week has been the craziest, most whirl-wind kind of week. Also, my spelling is terrible, so bear with me :)

I MADE IT TO COSTA RICA! YAY! I'm in an area called Grecia. It´s about two hours by bus outside of San Jose. Our area is pretty big, and we have to take a bus to spend days in other cities that are about 20 minutes away. It rains here everyday around 2 or 3, and honestly it makes me want to just curl up in my bed and watch a movie, but I will get used to it :)

My COMP: Hermana Henao. She's from Columbia, and doesn't speak any English, so communicating has been quite the challenge. She's super kind and loving, and helps me a TON. She does most of the talking in our lessons, but she lets me talk whenever I want, which is SO helpful. We have a lot of laughs, even though we can't communicate. :)

So, here in Costa Rica, every woman kisses each other on the cheek as a greeting and as a goodbye. It's super different than I'm used to, so the first time it happened I was SO freaked out! But everyone here is so loving. If we go in for a lesson, and ask for some water, they will give us some cookies and fresa (a strawberry drink)

I'm definitely still in culture shock! I cry everyday. In our first companion study, I cried my eyes out. I cry myself to sleep and while we are walking. It's normal :) The showers here a FREEEEEEZZING, but I'm slowly getting used to it!

Pray for me! I need all the help I can get. I love you all. Thank you for all the support and prayers so far, it means the world to me!!! Know that a missionary in Costa Rica is always thinking about you all and praying for you :)

Con mucho amor
Hermana Hansen


Hermans Henao and Hansen




Tuesday, August 23, 2016


hahahaha packing is the worst


last exercise time as a district :(


MATCHING RAINCOATS!

ultimo carta in el CCM!

Those I love,

HOLA! So as you all know, I'm leaving and moving to a different country in 24 hours! I'm slightly having a panic attack, but then I'm also SO excited to meet the Costa Ricans and love them with my whole heart and try to understand what they are saying! Estoy MUY anima por COSTA RICA en 1 día!!

This week was filled with way too many tears. When I left my family, I never thought that I would ever cry as hard, and then I got here and made all these wonderful friends and got so close to my teachers. Just picture 12 young kids all stuck in a room for hours on end, we are bound to become good friends. As I said goodbye to my District last night, I was a mess! We sang "God be with you till we meet again!" and I lost it! Saying goodbye to my teachers was also NO FUN :( I was so sad to have to leave and say goodbye to these people who helped me so much to become a good missionary. So the goodbyes will never end for the next 17 months!

This week was full of a lot of "lasts" my last lesson with Hermana Haroldsen, my last Sunday here, last class with my favorite teachers, last devotional here, last sand volleyball time with my District. We has the chance to skype a member, and she lived in ARGENTINA! What?? It was so cool! Even though she was talking a million miles an hour, and we weren't able to understand a lot, we still were able to teach her about the Book of Mormon and share our testimonies! ah! It was so great :) I love how no matter if we can't understand them, I still can testify and the spirit will come!

We had in-field orientation this week, and it helped me so much to realize the importance of teaching with members and having them there! It was the biggest one they've had- there are about 850 of us leaving this week!

The Elders of our District gave us all a priesthood blessing this week! ah. It was the best. I know that they are God talking exactly to us. I love the priesthood. What a blessing it is to have the priesthood power restored to this earth!

I love you all! You are the best. Thank you for all of the love and support you've all given me so far. If you think of me this week, just know that I LOVE you! I'll be probably crying myself to sleep every night, but I'll also be exactly where I want to be.

All my love,
Hermana Hansen

The best District in the world!!


THE BEST TEACHERS EVER


My District President and his wife with the Hermanas :)


My favorite Hermanas (don't tell)


Hermana Gunner aka my soul sister


We love infield orientation - 9 hours of sitting in meetings!

Wednesday, August 17, 2016


We have this game called "circle game" where we try and draw the circle on the board. 
It's a great stress relief and we all get superrr into it!
Also, my teachers love it. It's the most hilarious thing!


Only 6 more days until we can leave these gates!

LAST WEEK IN AMERICA

Sup Fam,

SO MUCH happened this week, but I'll try and be brief so that I don't bore anyone to death :)

On Wednesday we did exchanges with another district in our zone who is two weeks younger than us. I went with Hermana Gunner. What a day! They separated us into our levels of Spanish, and somehow I got put with the upper class! We went the whole day speaking in majority Spanish. It was so fun! I learned so much from Hermana Gunner. I was honestly so nervous for the exchanges, but she taught and helped me with my Spanish so much!

Elder Andersen came this week to Tuesday night! It was amazing. We have devotionals Tuesdays and Sundays, and it makes everything better. He talked about our missions are specifically for us. I know that there are people in Costa Rica who need me, and that only I can help. He also compared us missionaries to the apostles, because we do have the same purpose. He kept saying "It is our job to collect the elect" I'm so excited to go teach Costa Ricans in 6 DAYS!

Oh, so I got my travel plans this week! I leave August 23, which is next Tuesday! I'll be traveling all day, from 6:20 am until 8 pm when I land in Costa Rica. My Spanish is no where near ready, but I know that no one is ever fully prepared after the MTC, that's so we can rely on the Lord! :) I'm so so excited to get on Costa Rica and teach and try and communicate! I'm mostly excited to leave the MTC, because I'm ready!! (Sidenote: I told you that on my travel plans I had a flight from Costa Rica to Atlanta in October, and we found out that is just because apparently people just fly to Costa Rica and bum around there, and so in order to get into the country you need to have proof that you can get out! So they will cancel it as soon as I arrive next week! Crazy, huh?)

We decided to start memorizing D & C 4 in Spanish as a district! It's been so cool! I also memorized Articles of Faith 1-5 this past week. I'm just trying to be ready for Costa Rica!

For those of you who do not know, or if my mom has not told everyone she knows yet, I GOT ACCEPTED INTO THE ELEMENTARY EDUCATION PROGRAM AT UTAH STATE! I am overjoyed. I know that the Lord is sending me amazing blessings and miracles! What a relief that I don't have to worry about school or what I'm gonna do!

So we had our last weekly planning as a district this week. Honestly I was so sad! I'm so ready to leave, but also not at all! It's going to be SO hard to say goodbye to everyone in my district! :( We've all gotten so close!

So my teacher, Bro Santillan, made a deal with us as a district that if we spoke only Spanish on Sunday, he would buy us In-N-Out shakes! OF COURSE I DID IT! only Spanish was way tough, but SO worth it today when we got out of the temple and had In-N-Out shakes waiting for us! YUM! Last american food for 17 months!

I talked in Sacrament Meeting this week! I knew it was coming as I was planning it. It was on "enduring to the end" and I mostly just read it because it was only in Spanish, but while I was giving it, it wasn't as bad as I thought! I was happy that I had the chance to "practice" giving a talk in only Spanish.

Thanks for all the love and support! Sorry if my emails are so boring or long, I just wanna share my wonderful experience with everyone! I LOVE being a missionary and I'm so so happy. I'm also way tired, and it's hard, but I'm so grateful that I'm here. I'm so excited for Costa Rica in a few short days! Keep saying your prayers and reading your scriptures (totally missionary thing to say, I had to).

Love you all,
Hermana Hansen

ps. you all only have until Sunday to send me dear elders, packages, and letters until I'm out of AMERICA! so I better be feeling everyone's love :)


One happy sister missionary :)


In-N-Out + Temple = Blessed Day


k but how cute are we


I got the classic mission shirt, and it's the best purchase of my life.

Tuesday, August 9, 2016


Happy lil Sister missionary


My two good friends Hermana Hansen & Hermana Dorny. 
They left for Cali this week and it was SO HARD TO SAY BYE. 
The goodbyes aren't over, they are just going to continue :(

Officially one month as a missionary!

FAMILY AND FRIENDS! 

Hi. So as brutally honest as my email last week was, this week I'm going to be more positive, because this week was wayyyyy better.

So we currently have 3 investigators: Hely, Angelica, and Kevin. Kevin is by far my favorite (that probs isn't a good missionary thing to say, but oh well) and we had two solid lessons with him this week. On Friday we invited him to be baptized for the second time. We invited him in the first lesson, and he said that he would if God told him to. But this time HE SAID YES! I realize that it's in the MTC and so it won't be a real baptism, but holy cow it was awesome! The spirit was SO tangible! I could feel the Holy Ghost testifying of our words and helping us teach. My comp and I were just too excited that he said yes that all we could say was "bueno!" also I almost started to cry happy tears. 

I can't remember if I've told you all this, but no matter how hard each day is, Heavenly Father ALWAYS blesses me with a tender mercy. Like a mormon message in class, my teacher's testimony, a dear elder, or having a successful lesson. GOD IS SO GOOD.

This week was Fast Sunday, and I've always heard terrible things in the MTC about Fast Sunday. Honestly, it was such a good day. On top of fasting on Sunday, our district also had an English fast that day, which means no English alllll day. It was really hard, but I loved giving up both the things that I like most to God. It was truly a sacrifice and I can already see the blessings that have come because of it :) 

CHIK FIL A CAME ON MONDAY NIGHT! I almost cried tears of joy because I was so happy! It was so delicious and such a legit tender mercy. Now I only have to go 17 months without Chik Fil A. If only the MTC could buy Cafe Rio for everyone...

This week I learned a LOT about the power of prayer. I honestly would not still be here without the power of prayer! I've been spending a lot of time on my knees, and I know that God hears and answers our prayers. We were in a lesson this week, and after we had chatted about her day, we started with a prayer, and I literally felt the spirit surround us. It was the most powerful, coolest feeling ever! Prayer is SO important. If you aren't praying, start. God wants to hear from you all so badly! Talk to Him. He WILL help you, because he's helped me through some of my darkest days here, when I've felt all alone. 

I love you all! Just a reminder that you only have 2 more weeks to Dear Elder me before I'm in COSTA RICA :) packages, letters, dear elders are all welcome for my last two weeks here, if you want :)

One more thing...it's funny because as soon as I think I have the MTC down, and I'm comfortable, something changes and no more comfort zone. This week I think I have everything down, and now, tomorrow we are going on exchanges all day with another district in my zone, and that will be weird. They are all two weeks younger than us, so hopefully it won't be too bad. We still have to teach our lessons though, so hopefully my comp can communicate in Spanish well! 


We also get our flight plans this Friday! YAY!

All my love, 

Hermana Hansen


When your first ever investigator commits to baptism.


We are just really excited for Kevin to be baptized!


It only took a month and I'm already an awkward missionary :)


If you know anything about me, you know why I love this picture so much.



Wednesday, August 3, 2016


The Hermanas :)


Sister Missionary - Daytime

Halfway there, Livin on a prayer!

Hello my favorite people,

First off, lemme just say how much I LOVE YOU ALL. I can feel your prayers and thoughts strengthening me. Thank you, thank you! 

First off, let's start with some unhappy news. This morning was the first time I cried in the shower. I usually wait until the lights are out and I'm in my bed to let it out, but for some reason I just couldn't hold it together! And I'm not one to sugar coat things, and this is HARD. Maybe it hit me that I'm already halfway done with the MTC, and that in THREE weeks I'll be in Costa Rica, or maybe it was the fact that it's been three weeks away from my favorite people...whatever it was, I'm glad that I got over it. 

Fun fact about Sister Missionaries: since we can only hug girls, we LOVE hugging. Maybe it's just my District or just my teacher, but us girls love hugging. It's hilarious and awesome. Also, we have another teacher named Hermana Guerrero and holy cow she's THE BEST! Honestly I'm so #blessed with the best teachers. Both of them truly CARE about us missionaries, and our success. It's amazing. Jason told me that it's the only time that teachers truly care and want you to succeed, and he is SO RIGHT! They are so willing to help with anything and it's such a blessing! 

Speaking of teachers, my comp and I met with Bro Santillan this week on Wednesday(?) night I think. He just basically asked and talked to us about our lives and how we are doing. Hermana Haroldsen and I took 45 minutes talking with him....oops. OF COURSE I bawled my eyes out because missionary work is hard and I'm also a baby. But he was totally cool about it and gave some of the BEST advice. You can really tell that he cares about and prays for us each day. It was funny because he took my comp and I, and the other Hermanas to "coach" us and the other Elders in the District were so bugged that they didn't get time! He just said that the Hermanas are more important :) lol

Something really awesome happened this week: I CAN ROLL MY R'S. Emily Hansen, the girl who took four years of Spanish in school can finally roll her R's!!!! It makes me so happy. I definitely have to practice a ton, but I'm making progress! I will always love the word "tierra" because that's when I rolled my r's for the first time. Little progress is the best. 

So we had a lesson with one of our investigators, Hely, on Friday. It's called TRC and it's a legit, non-member investigator. The other two investigators we teach are our teachers. Anyways, we got to have a member in our lesson on Friday!! It was SO HELPFUL! We were stumbling through teaching the Restoration, and I totally told Hely that Joseph Smith was a young boy who was 40 years old. Yeah the member quickly corrected me. lol Hey, the MTC is the place to learn, right? 

Okay I'm gonna tell a story and I don't wanna come off vain. So keep that in mind as I tell you all this: so this week, I obviously can't remember which day because they all run together, I decided to be brave and wear my hair tucked into a headband. My comp told me that I looked like a greek goddess. I'll send a picture of it, so it will make sense. ANYWAYS. So I wear my hair like that one day, and all the sudden the next day I see three other Hermanas in my building wearing the same hairstyle. Then, the next day I see like five other sisters in the cafeteria with the same hairstyle. I'm not trying to sound vain, but can someone say trend-setter? lol 

So I had a thought this week...I've been thinking a lot about name tags. With so many missionaries around you, so you see all the name tags. Wearing a name tag is honestly the BEST. However, it does come with a price. We don't get much sleep, we don't get to see our families or friends, and we always stay with a companion, which can be a pain at some points. HOWEVER, I'm a disciple of CHRIST! I get to wear His name on my heart each day and represent Him! It's pretty amazing! I've learned this week that because I'm a disciple of Christ, I must walk a bit of the path that He had to walk. I believe that is why a mission is hard a points! It doesn't come without a price! 

I love you all. I'm super tired, but SUPER happy. Have a great week everyone! 

Hermana Hansen


Sister Missionary - Nighttime (Thanks for the spray cheese)


Best Comps EVAA


Trend-setting hair-do