Week 23 - A Week Full of Miracles

"Dominos Pizza - Sauce Tomate au Basilic"

FAM!

Like in theory I know that a lot of stuff happened this week, but in practice I have NO idea what to write. So I guess I'll just do the lame day by day thing and we'll see what I find! 

Monday. Soldes [sales] shopping! I didn't really find anything:( a little disappointed but then we had soiree familial that night and "S" came! She is the woman I met in October like a week after I got here and was the first one I taught the First Vision to! And then we didn't set a return RDV ["rendezvous" - appointment] (bleu [rookie] mistake) and have been trying to get a hold of since. It was so so cool. Never give up on anybody! 

Tuesday. Went out into the country to do visiting teaching for Soeur Taylor. Super fun, but a really long trip out, like half hour train ride followed by half hour in the car, and there was only one train to return so we ended up having like 20 minutes at the house before we had to turn around and get back to the gare. That night we taught "E" the plan du salut [plan of salvation]. Went well! 

"Soeur Anderson in the beautiful French countryside"

Wednesday. District meeting, saw some people did some things. It was good. I think... it was like 5 days ago I don't remember. 

Thursday. Miracle day. We'd been praying so hard that the people we'd set up to go see would be there (one of them has frudged [cancelled on] me/sr hopkins/sr bradley like 6 or 7 times) AND THEY WERE ALL THERE. It was absolutely amazing. Those are the days you work for. Like everyday should feel successful and good because you're doing missionary work but when you actually get to teach and things go right, that's the best feeling in the world. 

Friday. CRAZY. We cleaned the chapel that morning with a member who'd brought us these amazing chocolate beignets (but we were fasting because we were going to teach "E" the law of chasity so we didn't get to eat them until later) then went to our RDV with "E"- it went SO well. We did l'evangile [the gospel] and law of chasity together so it was a lot, and it was the first time I'd taught either of those so it was definitely not perfect and could have absolutely gone better but "E" was just so prepared. She told us she'd been feeling a little overwhelmed because we had all the RDVs set, and talked to her about how there's some steps to baptism but she was reading in the Book of Mormon and found a verse that brought her comfort. What do ya know, 1 Nephi 3:7. Oh my gosh this lady is acutally made of solid gold. She's INCREDIBLE. 

But Friday doesn't end there. ohhh no. After that we broke our fast (we'd started it after lunch on Thursday) with Dominos pizza. We thought we'd have time to go home/the church before our next RDV so we each bought a whole one (like for lunch and dinner). Yeah.... we didn't have time. So we each ate the WHOLE thing. And it was cold outside so we didn't want to sit on a bench so we went in this little mall place and ate standing up inside. The most AWKWARD half hour of my life. I'm sure people were giving us some super weird looks but honestly we were both trying to focus on not puking up our 6 euro pizza. It was bad. But so so yummy. But I don't think I'm going to be able to eat Dominos again anytime soon. 

Friday - still. That night we spent pretty much the whole night on the tram getting directions over the phone from an Armenian lady. Who we didn't actually end up finding :( more memorable experiences. 

Saturday. Planning. woot. 

Sunday. Church, did some batting [contacting in apartment buildings]. We prayed with 4 people in the same bat! It was SOO cool. And it was in an area that's super Muslim so I definitely did not think we were going to pray with anybody. But it was a really really good day. 

So yeah. That's EVERYTHING I can think of from this week. 

Basically to tie it all together I guess, I really really have seen the power of prayer. In the MTC and my first two transfers, I really felt like I learned a lot about prayer for helping yourself and strengthening that personal relationship with Heavenly Father. But this week I got to see the power of prayer in affecting others and outside circumstances. We'd been praying that "E" would continue to progress and take the law of chasity well, and that absolutely happened. We'd been praying that our RDVs would happen and that was a miracle day. And that day too all our amis asked us to pray for them (totally out of the blue) for their health, work, family. It was really really cool. 

Another really cool experience with prayer this week- Sr Anderson has an old ami in Versailles who's getting baptized on Saturday and we're going to be in Paris on Friday for a Soeur Conference (it's going to be SWEET and all the elders are jealous) so we asked President if we could stay for it and he said yes! But then we got a text that night that it was off. We were SOO sad, but we were praying SO hard for her all that day that something would change and she would realize she didn't need to wait. And that night we got a call from the Versailles soeurs that the baptism is back on!!! 

I know that we don't get everything we pray for. I know that it's not our will, but Heavenly Father's. But I also know that when we pray and ask for things anyway, trusting and being okay with His timing, that when those things happen it is absolutely a miracle and a beautiful experience. 

Love you guys SOOOO much. 

like so much you don't even know.

Maren

Week 22 - Checking Things Off the Bucket List

"Random gorilla statue in Tours.
It's right next to the kebab place."

Family!! 

Love you so much but words cannot express how much I do not want to write this email right now. There's just too much stuff. I realized the other day how much you guys actually don't know, because I am the only one who is telling you anything and I don't say everything (obviously) -- not in a bad way -- just know, lots of good stories yet to come. 

Got something checked off my mission bucket list! Old French lady called the cops on us while we were going door to door. One of the sketchiest things ever, we were waiting at the bus stop to head home when this car with four big dudes stops right in front of us and they all climb out. SO scary, but they were like "we're the police were you the ones going door to door?" and I just let Sr Anderson handle it. It was fine, they took our names and address (second time police had done that in a week!) and told us that a lot of theft has been happening in the neighborhood so that's probably why they got called. SO annoying though. And they made us miss the last bus so we had to walk home. But bucket list (!) though we also will not be going back to that quartier [neighborhood] any time soon. 

Another bucket list item- first real bible bash! We tracted into these two super cool super believing Jamaicans who are here for studies and prayed with them and then set a time to go back. We got a little into the Restoration and gave them brochures but then we had to leave (which was good because it was starting to get a little intense) and they were like "okay, come back tomorrow night, we'll read this" so yeah we were freaking out. But it was good, and thankfully it was in English so we could really express ourselves. It's so interesting how different people's interpretations of the same things can be, and it's so sad how closed off they can be sometimes too. But for a first time with super super super believing people (who know the Bible about 1000X better than I do) it went really well. They listened, we listened, and they accepted the Book of Mormon and we left them with the Spirit. So it went better than we could have planned. But again, not planning on going back anytime soon. 

"With Celine - sorry for the blurry picture"

Friday night we took Celine Djemai (the young woman from our branch) out to do some work with us, passed by someone who was home! and then did some porte-a-porte and then took her to the RDV with the Jamaicans (she speaks English too). It was SO fun. Well, WE thought it was fun. I loved just feeling so excited about missionary work. It's weird and it's awkward and we walk a ton and we freeze but having the experience of getting to show someone else what we do was SO fun and reminded me how cool and crazy of an adventure this is. 

We also got to see "E" again this week, watched the Retab [Restoration] film and talked about getting answers to prayer. She's so so cool. She accepted a baptismal date too! Febuary 14th! We told her we'd been praying about it and thought that was the date and she was like, well I don't work, so that must be a sign from God. She is amazing. But there's still so much to teach her so please please please keep her in your prayers. 

Yesterday was Branch conference so like everybody EVERYBODY from all the stake presidencies and their families were in Tours yesterday. I don't think I could serve in a ward. It's too big. Too crazy. It was really good though! 

Last night we had a really cool experience porting too, we got let in and prayed with this guy and his cousin and after we finished the prayer his cousin had tears in her eyes, she said that what we'd prayed for was exactly what they'd been talking about just before we rang their sonnerie. It was such a wonderful moment. Reminded me that we may never know how something we do could help someone. It's still hard to go on faith, but God gives us enough to keep us going, as long as we're always looking for it. 

Love you so so much fam thanks for everything!!!! 

Soeur Hansen 

City Hall in Tours after the tragedies in Paris

"I prefer to die standing than to live on my knees"

Week 21 - Highs and Lows

Family!! 

I honestly don't know how to write this email, so many things! 

First off - my birthday was great! Super weird that it was just a week ago, I have been 20 for a week, when did this happen!? We had a little birthday celebration after soirée familiale on Monday night- realized we didn't have anything to light the candles with so we knocked on a neighbor's door... at 10 pm. He probably though we were crazy but it's fine, we kind of are. 

Wednesday we had our district meeting in Bourges- it's a super cool city, small but beautiful! And I found the church even though I'd only been there once and only had to call for help one time! Counting it as a success. That night when we got back to Tours there was a protest by the Hotel de Ville [city hall] in the center of town which knocked out one of the biggest bus/tram stops and everything was all mixed up and honestly getting home was a miracle but it all worked out! 

We got a couple texts from President about staying safe this week and using good judgment on what areas we go to. Friday night we were supposed to head home or stay home if we didn't have any rendez-vous, we're all being well looked after, but I can't imagine what it must be like in Paris right now. 

We had our RDV with "E" (our miracle amie) on Friday night and she is absolutely awesome and so prepared! Her boyfriend was there and apparently said that he wasn't going to join us, but ended up staying for the whole lesson! We had Soeur Kamegawa with us, who served a mission in Taihiti, and she was great! 

"A" came to church on Sunday- we still haven't been able to really teach her again but she's great and we're just trying to help her feel loved. We taught her after church with Soeur Taylor. Things are good in Tours! Missionary work! Wooh! 

I couldn't decide whether to share this next story or not but I feel like I need to talk about it just because it's kind of not good... I don't know. it just sort of adds to the extreme highs and extreme lows of this week. 

We were waiting at a bus stop by a sort of busy intersection and as Soeur Anderson and I are standing there a man (who looked slightly intoxicated at 3 in the afternoon) walked into traffic and was hit by a car. Right in front of us. It was like slow motion and the worst thing I've probably ever seen. The car wasn't going too fast so he didn't get thrown or anything, but he just hit his head very hard and it was really really bad. The police and the ambulance showed up about five minutes later but that was one of the longest five minutes of my life. The people in the cars all around were absolutely incredible to watch though, and that's really why i wanted to share this I guess. They just all jumped into action. The guy driving the car was on his phone immediately and a couple people who looked like they had some medical training were helping and doing what they could for the man who was hit. Other people right around started redirecting traffic and were on their phones as well. People are really amazing. In the face of the most horrible things- like terrorist attacks or a car accident- they can just work together and cooperate in the most basic and perfect way. That's what I've been thinking a lot about and trying to remind people of this week as we've been talking with them about what happened in Paris this week. Humans are really much better than we often give them credit for being. 

That's my deep thought for today.

Love you all so so so much. Thanks for everything you do!

Soeur Hansen

PS - Food highlights of the week:

"Flan - a mission tradition. You're supposed to eat the flan in one gulp/bite. I don't know exactly how to describe it. I was terrible but I tried! it was definitely a memory." 

"Birthday Kebab"

Week 20 - Happy New Year!

Château de Chenonceau

Hey Fam, Happy 2015!

I get to be a missionary for this ENTIRE year!

This week was really great - started off with a trip to Chenonceau, which was absolutely beautiful, so so worth it. We ended up not having as much time as we would have liked, but got to see everything and take lots of pictures, so a good P-day.

Other than that this week we kept busy doing lots and lots and lots of porting and contacting and planning and being missionaries.

"Bûche de Noël with fireworks!"

Wednesday night we celebrated with our Relief Society president. She's absolutely incredible. We had our little meal and a bûche de Noël [Yule log - a traditional French dessert for Christmas] - with a firework candle. Very exciting stuff. 

Thursday we got to sleep in again and watched the Emma Smith movie and made crêpes for our own celebration. We spent the evening with the family Kehli. We told them that we watched Frozen for Noël and that Sr Anderson has been teaching me "Let it Go" in French. Their little 7-year-old doesn't like La Reine des Neiges [The French name for the movie - The Snow Queen] so naturally we started singing Let it Go to her. I think she about died laughing. Such a fun night. 

We had a super cool miracle yesterday though! For weekly planning we called pretty much everyone in our phone to set up rendez-vous with whomever wanted to see us (actually fairly successful) and one lady said she'd come to church. Sunday rolls around and no one shows up, we were disappointed but not totally surprised. Then halfway through testimony meeting one of the brothers who blessed the sacrament (they stay up at the sacrament table through the whole meeting... not sure why exactly) got up and brought this woman into the chapel - he'd seen her in the lobby through the windows in the doors behind the congregation. Anyway, he directed her to us and we figured she was the amie that was going to come. After sacrament meeting we were talking though and she told us that her sister, who is a member in California, had been telling her to go to church so she looked up the address and the hours and came! She got a little lost and that's why she was late but she told us she had the strongest feelings that she needed to come and that even when she got lost and realized she was late something told her that she needed to stay. Her name is "E". Such a neat lady.

We grabbed a member, a recent convert, and had a little lesson with "E" in the chapel afterwards. The member was such a pro, explaining missionaries and church and the Book of Mormon and generally just being incredible. "E" is absolutely INCREDIBLE and we are so so excited to meet with her again. And it was really just beautiful to see the branch just LOVE her, welcoming her and introducing themselves and offering to give her a ride home and just all kinds of awesome member-missionary stuff.

After that we spent pretty much the rest of the day with the Kehlis, teaching little lessons to two of their family friends. Both Muslim and not super interested, but super super nice and we got to see the miracle of reaching our member present goals which our district/zone/mission has been really focusing on this week.

Really getting excited about this week, we're hopefully going to actually get to teach a lot more and work with some really awesome people- members and amies.

Celebrated my birthday (Wooh!! 20!!) with crêpes. We're going to a castle again today! 

Love you guys so so so much you're the best and I am so grateful for you and all your support.

Soeur Hansen

PS: A big old shout out thank you to all the people who sent me christmas cards, I LOVE them!

PPS: We met this man in a park and he asked if we wanted to learn about the history of the park so we were like "okay" and he told us about these trees - sequoias - and that you can punch them and it doesn't hurt. We were super weirded out at this point and a little deprived of oxygen due to his smoking but I was like "there is an old man in france telling me to punch a tree. I'm going to punch this tree." We staged some pictures after. It actually doesn't really hurt, something about the bark but yeah, definitely a memory.

"Christmas PJs from Mom!"

"Christmas loot"

"Inside the chateau - still decorated for Christmas"

"An amazing sunset at Chenonceau"