Family Rivera!!! We have FHE every Sunday with them

HOLA :)

Good morning from Grecia, Costa Rica :) 

SOOO many things happened this week! We had splits with the sister trainer leaders, and I went with Hermana Escalera in her area in Tejar. It was SO awesome! Their area is a ward, and they had zumba, and we taught the Word of Wisdom! I also just learned SO much from her, and how I can be a better missionary :) Its so helpful to have spilts, because all I know as a missionary here is teaching with Hermana Henao, and so it was SO fun to have a different perspective :) We have a saying in the mission, and whenever someone asks how we are, we say, ¨viva y dinamica¨ which means Alive and Dynamic. Its super awesome, and reminds us to always be quick and smart with these 18 months or 2 years that we have. I learned from Hermana Escalera to be more smart and productive with my time here. And to be more alive and dynamic in every moment of my mission, even when I am dead tired :) 

So we arrived at our house at like 9:25 one night, because we were in a lesson, and I COULDN´T FIND OUR KEYS! We called our DL, and went to a member´s house. While we were there, I was searching through my backpack, and I found them! HOW EMBARRASSING! I will know be forever known as the sister who lost the keys, when really they were in my backpack. AH. que pena. at least we found them :) 

So, if it isn´t obvious, we haven´t had any baptisms yet! It´s super discouraging, but we have a few lined up for the 5th of Nov. Please pray for Marta, Jessi and Issac, they are our solid hope for the 5th!! Jessi and Issac are a couple with the CUTEST little girl, and they are going to be such a solid family in the church if they accept it :)  It´s hard because sometimes I feel like it is my fault for not being able to help a ton, or know what is going on, but then I realize that those thoughts are from Satan, and that I really am trying my best, and that is what God asks of me :) 

HOLY COW this church is so true. I am learning SOO much each day, and I love teaching lessons :) The spirit is SO strong when we testify of the Gospel, it´s something that is truly amazing. I started reading the New Testament, and I am learning SO much about Christ´s mortal ministry and how similar His life and experiences and feelings were with my feelings! I have definitely felt dark times, and I will continue to feel them, but I realize that the dark times exist so we can know the JOY! and what a joy is it to testify of Christ each day, and wear His name each day :) 

This week is Semana de Milagros, and we are going to have SO MUCH SUCCESS :) (sorry I cannot spell to save my life) and this week we are going to have different activities each day to help us focus on finding new people! I´m pumped:) 

Our branch is small, but the members are SO nice and they feed us, so it´s awesome :) Our branch has a attendance of 45. Our Relief Society has like 7 ladies! Super small. But it´s gonna be a ward here real soon :)

This is so hard, but I am so happy! God is helping me and lifting me through each day. Every day I am pushed to my max, but I am growing SO much. I am learning more and more Spanish each day :) Thanks for all of the letters, love and support. I wouldn´t be here or who I am without all of my family and friends!! I LOVE YOU GUYS! 

Also, the scripture that has changed my mission is in Mosiah 23:10. READ IT :) I can testify of it´s truthfulness :) I also gave the spiritual thought in Zone Conference about this scripture, and I just love it. 

All of my love and prayers,
Hermana Hansen

Divisiones con the STLS! Hermana Escalera is the one wearing red :) 

Divisiones con the STLS!

Divisiones con the STLS!

Recreating the MTC photo

PANTS!!
(they might be three sizes too big....
but they are not too short)

a regular missionary meal lol

when we were two sick missionaries

happy happy happy

Hello people I love very most!

First off, lets talk about time. Time is the weirdest thing. This past week, every day I would look at my watch and we would have only 2 more hours of the day left! Time is FLYING by, and I fully realize that it is just going to keep going. Hermana Henao told me congrats, the time is just going to go more fast! And wow its so true! I only have 5 more weeks of training left, which blows my mind. I am also a different person, but not it a bad way. I have learned the importance of humility and patience. I am learning SO much about myself, and how I can become a better disciple of Jesus Christ :) 

So we get into a lesson, and before I could say anything, the lady says ¨are you Tica??¨ so I may not be able to talk like a tica, but hey, at least I kinda look like one? :) 

Apparently there is a hurricane in Haiti? Anyways, because of the hurricane it is raining the CRAZY here. Like all day, and we get so wet! But people are so nice and let us some into their homes and teach them the perfect gospel :) I am super grateful for my Crocs!

Spanish. Oh boy. It so coming! Seriously people here are way nice and patient, for the most part:) A veces hay personas that are super mean about it, but hey, its all good. When people hear that I have a month and a half here in Costa Rica, they are amazed! and I just want to tell them. GIFT OF TONGUES :) haha 

Lets see. We have a few solid investigators, and if we can receive a miracle, we might have a baptism the end of this month :) Her name is Jazmin, and she is the daughter of one of our investigators named Luisa :) Luisa is the kindest lady. We were teaching her and at the end of the lesson, she comes and sits by me and just gives me the biggest hug. AH it reminded me of my mom. :) Hopefully she will be baptized with her daughter :) They are both SO patient with me and my Spanish. 

We have this family in our branch, Familia Rivera, and we have FHE with them every Sunday, I think I may have already told you all that. But they family are members, but the dad is not. They have a missionary out, who started his mission just as I came here. Anyways, FHE is super awesome and it makes me feel like I am at home and that I am around my family, just my Spanish family :) 

I am so happy here. Attitude really does determine altitude in the mission, and I am so grateful for this happiness. I am SO grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ, and for the fact that really, He helped me and carried me through those first few weeks, when everything was spinning out of control! I know that really, truly, Christ LIVES! He truly did suffer every single thing that we would go through in this life, so that he KNOWS how to succor us in our trials, and in our happy times. I love this perfect Gospel, and that I get to share it with those who don't know about it!! 

I love you all! Thanks for all the support :) I am so happy. 

Hermana Hansen

ew

Yes this really happened! A cockroach on our toilet paper

Just a few selfies with my "mom" - 

3 MONTHS!

hi. 

I'VE BEEN A MISSIONARY FOR 3 MONTHS. I don't even know how I feel about that! It's been some of the hardest days, but I have learned SO SO SO much these past few months! I love being a missionary, even though at times people laugh at me because of my Spanish, or I don't understand something, I LOVE it! Its such a cool feeling to be on the Lords errand :) 

GENERAL CONFERENCE! So to answer everyone's (my mom and dad's) question about Conference, yes I watched it all in SPANISH! Yes it was SO difficult to understand. We watched in the church building, which is just a cute little house turned into a chapel! It was SO HARD to understand, but it was really amazing to feel the spirit. Plus I am super pumped to read it in the Liahona next month :)

I wore PANTS this week! Shoutout to Michelle from my home ward for giving me pants! I LOVE wearing pants! I feel so free! And also SUPER professional! haha It's super awesome. My companion calls me an Elder, but I love it. :) 

We were sick this week, and stayed in the house from 2 days :( I was sick on Tuesday, and my comp on Wednesday! We basically just slept and recovered. BUT here is what I learned: no matter how sick I am, working, teaching, and sharing the Gospel is SO much better than staying in the house. We both felt so cooped up, and we were DYING to get out and work on Thursday :) 

So I remember when I had splits with Hermana Brown, I had like 5 days in the mission field. I remember her telling me that the hardest part of the mission is when people don't accept the Gospel, and you just have to move on. I felt this for the first time this week. One of our most solid inv texted us and told us that she didn't want us to teach her anymore. IT WAS SO HARD! Like if these people only knew how much the Gospel can help them!!! So that is the hardest part of the mission. It's like what Elder Oaks said in his talk, Investigators accept the Gospel when they are ready, not when we are. HOLY COW! it's so true and so hard at the same time :( 

If I understood correctly, President Eyring gave Bountiful a little shoutout, right? In the midst of Spanish words I heard Bountiful, Utah! yeahhhh! 

I heard the new Justin Bieber song this week in the street. I most definitely did not enjoy listening to it for 30 seconds :) 

We are reading the Book of Mormon as a mission, 5 pages each day. We also carry BOM in our hands :) It's SO AWESOME! I am learning SO much Spanish from reading the BOM! I got a blessing when I was on splits with Hermana Brown, and it said that I would have knowledge as I study the scriptures in Spanish, and I can already see it coming! I love the Book of Mormon, and I know with all of my heart that it is TRUE! I know that really, the stories in there really did happen. Man I love that I get to share that with the people of Costa Rica :) 

I love you all! have a great week, and keep me in your prayers if you want ;) 

Hermana Hansen 

Bummer - no pictures this week.

the good, the bad, and the ugly.

FAMILY AND FRIENDS!

Hi! This week was filled with the hard and the best, which is no surprise! :) Let´s start with the Chequeo de mes! It´s a meeting that President has with all the new missionaries and the trainers after a month in the mission. It was on Thursday in San Jose! So we took a bus Wednesday night to San Jose (about 2 hours) and slept over with the other sister missionaries! IT WAS SO FUN! Then we got up bright and early around 4:20 and headed to the TEMPLE! They opened the temple JUST for us missionaries. What a blessing! Man it was awesome. Of course it was all in Spanish, but the spirit was just the same :) It was SO FUN to see all the elders from my MTC district, and to hear that they are struggling just as much as I am! It made me feel not so alone :) Then we went to president´s house, and had a few devotionals! then lunch :) It was so awesome! He really nailed into us that we need to cast the things that are impeding us from working with all of our alma, mente y fuerza aside! MAN! subtweet to me!!! I am getting better and better at focusing on the mission, because the more I understand the less I space out and think about my wonderful fam :) 

My heart just about broke this week! We walked an hour to an appointment with one of our progressing investigators, Seidy, and she MOVED! We don´t know where, or if it´s in our area! I literally started to cry, in the pouring rain, in the streets of Costa Rica. MAN! She was so solid and was a young mom with two little kids that needs the Gospel! It´s so hard to drop people and lose them! But I have faith that we can find her, and that she will receive the gospel! 

The work here is hard! Our area is HUGE, and we only had one investigator at church :( I feel like sometimes I´m impeding the work, but I know that that is not the case! We have another solid investigator named Luisa who, if she accepts the restoration and gives up coffee, will be such a solid member! Pray for her please :) 

So we have this family that we visit twice a week, the mom washes our clothes. They have 3 boys, alejandro, jose and luisito! luisito is only 4, but the other 2 boys are members. The mom needs a miracle, because she needs to travel to Nicaragua to get her papers to get married! the husband doesn´t want anything to do with the church, but Marta is so solid! We are going to have some sort of service or bake sale to raise money! PRAY FOR HER :) 

Something that has also been on my mind is that people here have next to nothing, and yet they are all SO giving. Man, it´s incredible! I already love Ticos so much, it´s crazy. As hard as this is, I am so happy to be serving the Lord here in Costa Rica :) Some days it still doesn´t feel real. 

So my mind is in Spanish mode, and everywhere we go people ask me what a word is in English. Yesterday in church I was trying to think of what D & C was in English, and I could not do it for the life of me! LOL! It just goes to show that I really have been called to serve speaking Spanish! We watched a video in District Meeting, and it was Pres. Eyring describing the process of mission calls. Man, it was SO powerful and strengthened my testimony about the fact that I really am needed here, and that the Lord knows that I can learn Spanish and preach the gospel in Spanish, even when I have doubts. :) 

I love you all! I hope you have a good week! Know that I am praying for you all each night! I am finally settling in to life here, and slowly understanding more and more. I am so grateful to have such AMAZING friends and family who support me. LOVE YOU!  

Hermana Hansen

ONE MONTH

HOLA FAMILIA! 

Can you believe it's been a whole month here in Costa Rica??? I sure can :) This month has been some of the hardest, longest, darkest, scariest days of my life! BUT, every day I learn more and more Spanish and more and more about my area! Each day is easier than the last, but they still have their own trials lol. 

This week was a week of miracles, which just means it's a week dedicated and focused on finding new people! We do TONS of fun activities to switch things up, and each day has a theme for us to focus on. Each day we worked with the Elders from Naranjo, an area about 40 minutes away. We went to the park in our area, set up a table, and just talked with everyone! Man, it was so awesome! Tuesday we focused on the Book of Mormon, and there was a lady who spoke English that I contacted, but it was surprisingly SO hard to teach the gospel in English! I kept thinking that it's because I've been called to preach in Spanish, not English. Way cool :) 

Something that we do here that I love, is that we ALWAYS pray kneeling. Where ever we are, we get down on our knees and pray :) It's something that I LOVE. I think it shows our humility and how seriously we take being able to talk with our Heavenly Father :)

Thursday was Independence Day here, so Presidente had us stay inside until 3 pm. It was so nice to be able to study, catch up on some reading, and just have extra time to work on the language :) I couldn´t help but think about the 4th of July though, and how different it is here than in Utah. They still have fireworks though! 

Awkward moment: I fell TWICE this week! So embarrassing! Mom, don´t worry, I only scraped up my hand and leg a little bit! It was more awkward than painful! One was in an alley with these risky guys all around, and honestly if I wasn't a missionary I would have been scared, but the Lord protects us, and I know that for a fact now :) 

THIS WEEK WAS SO GOOD! Sunday was the best day here by far. I actually understood a lot of what was going on in Church, and I talked a lot, and people understood me! We also had an FHE and we had popcorn and watched an old testament movie! I think I can finally start to be settled in here to my life here in Grecia :) 

I love you all. Gosh I am so blessed with the BEST family and friends support system! Thanks for everything. You all mean the WORLD to me, and I pray for you all daily :) 

con amorsh, 
Hermana Hansen

PS We get to go to the temple this week!! on Thursday! We have a meeting with president, all the new missionaries and trainers, so we are going to San Jose on thursday! I AM SO PUMPED TO GO TO THE TEMPLE! Hopefully they have headphones! lol

HOLA

HEY FAM!

So last week we had the BEST pday ever. We came together as a zone in San Ramon, a city about two hours away from Grecia. We ate lunch, honestly no idea what kind of meat it was, and then went hiking!! We legit were in the forests of COSTA RICA!! It was awesome!! :) We hiked and my shoes got SO muddy, so much for bringing white shoes :) It was so nice to be in the mountains and relax a bit.

This week I did something terrifying. I contacted a WHOLE bus!! Ah it was so scary. I got up in front of the bus and introduced us, and then sung a hymn and invited everyone to church! It was terrifying, but each time I do something scary its easier the next time!!

Something funny about Costa Rica: since I'm a giant compared to everyone else here, ALL the mirrors in houses and bathrooms only go to my neck! lol! I have to squat down to see in our bathroom and I have to bend down to wash my hands! Everyone asks how tall I am, and I am easily the tallest sister missionary in the mission! Shout out to my dad for my height lol.

Something totally gross: there are cockroaches in our shower! YAY! lol They come at night and come through the drain! I totally freak out each time, but later I killed my first one! yay! Small baby steps :) The mission is taking all sorts of adjusting!

Being at Church is hard because I do not understand a whole lot, and people are talking SO fast! We also had two investigators that we needed to help around, but I don't know how to talk to them! AH! So we get home and make lunch, we relaxed a little bit, and then the STLs called and one of  the APs who both speak English. AH, finally someone who could understand me. They let me talk it out. It was really nice to let my stress out. I know that my mission will be hard, and I believe that the Lord has sent me to Costa Rica because He knows that I can do this. He knows that I have the capability to learn Spanish.

I've been thinking a lot about faith this week. I have been reading in 2 Nefi, and Nefi had such a tremendous amount of faith, even when his people were wicked. Nefi went through some incredibly difficult trials, just as I am right now. However, Nefi had unshakable faith. He was able to pray to the Lord with faith that things would work out. I've been studying Hope this week, and hope is to know that all things will work out for your benefit and that the Lord will provide a way. Man, having hope is a whole lot easier said than done, but I am trying each day to have hope. :)

Something that I learned in the MTC is that as a disciple (sorry I cannot spell in English anymore) I must walk a LITTLE bit of what Christ walked. It may seem silly to compare my mission with the atonement, but right now is my Gethsemane. I am struggling like never before! I know that all of this opposition and struggle has an equal blessing, somewhere down the road.

I can not thank you all enough for the support and prayers on my behalf. I love you all so much!!!! Also, this week is semana de milagros, which is basically just a week dedicated to finding new escogidos! so I'm super pumped.

Hermana Hansen

Hiking last pday with my District.

They have snowglobes in Costa Rica.

Just a normal road here is Costa Rica.

We carry a Book of Mormon with us everywhere, 

it's to help people not confuse us with Jehovah Witnesses.

WEEK TWO BABY

MY FAVORITE PEOPLE,

Ok. Lets just start by saying that this week was still HARD. So many tough things happened this week, BUT I am slowly understanding more and more Spanish!! Yay! It's hard with all of the different accents, but I can completely understand my comp in lessons, so that's a blessing. She also lets me teach and when she turns to me and points to a picture in the pamphlet, my heart starts pounding, but the only way I'll get better is if I practice, and I'm so grateful that she lets me talk in lessons. :) 

This week was way different. We had divisiones on Martes, and I went in another area with Hermana Brown. She's my STL and also a grenga! Yay finally I could speak some English and understand what was going on in lessons!! She also understands exactly what I feel, and we had a little cry break after one of our lessons because I was a mess. She also suggested that I get a priesthood blessing, and it helped TONS!!! Also, she explained the whole money situation and helped me get everything figured out. What a blessing :)

Also, I was sick on Wednesday. I had a little bit of a fever and it was the WORST without my mom there to take care of me! But my comp was so nice. I just slept for the afternoon and was all better the next day. MIRACLE!! YAY! 

As we were in FHE last night, I couldn't help but be eternally grateful for my ETERNAL FAMILY! I'm so grateful for the fact that we are going to be forever together. What a blessing! :) Also, we had 4 investigators in the capilla this week! YAY! I know that it was because we fasted for them. Man, the Lord gives us such amazing milagros :) 

God is so good. He knows exactly how much I can take each day, and He is always sending me tender mercies to help me along my way each day! I know that Christ lives. Yo se con todo me corazon que Cristo vive! I know that the Lord truly does hear and answer our prayers each day :) I love you all. Thanks for all of the support and prayers this past week!!! 

All my love,
Hermana Hansen

My Mama

HERMANA BROWN, aka the literally best person ever. 

Man divisiones with her came at the most perfect time.

Our house! (ants everywhere)

Our galmourous closet!!! Living the high life here in Gercia :)