Week 26 - Spreading joy and being happy

 Hey fam!

So I had to have Caro again. But I can tell that story later. 

Monday, had a referral from the elders so we headed out into this little town outside of Rennes. We didn't have a map so we had to rely on a big sign in the centreville (which was the hotel de ville, a poste and a boulangerie). It was dark and raining and cold and she wasn't there when we got there but it was a super fun night just being a missionary and trying to do our best to spread joy. 

Tuesday we had district meeting and pretty much just talked about how to be happy. That's President's first goal for us, to be happy and to have a strong relationship with our Heavenly Father. I love Pres. Babin. Goal three is double the baptisms. But like that's okay, we'll get there.

Wed/Thurs we did missionary work. It was magical. Fun fact- no one can understand my French. I guess I should do language study once in a blue moon. 

Friday the elders wanted to teach with us to pass an amie at a member's home. It was a little complicated because the member didn't acutally know her street address so we just got lost and it was raining and it was just complicated but we all ended up there. So then after the SUPER long lesson Elder Gee's bleu gets up to leave and I was like "we're not done" as the member brings in a couple cakes for us and some herbal tea, oh how fondly I remember being bleu and thinking that when a lesson was over you actually got to leave ha ha those were the days. We had a tea party everyone. Best part- Elder Gee picked some tea and his bleu naturally picked the same and then the member and amie were like "no no not that one! it makes you have to go to the bathroom really quick!" so Sr Back and I start busting up but Elder Kelley (the bleu, who didn't understand what she said) just looks at us until I can finally tell him that they'd picked laxative tea. HAHAHAAH literally was laughing about that for the rest of the week. 

And that brings me to the Caro story- Elder Kelley wanted to try Caro (I don't know why, I told him it was nasty) but accidently poured a TON in his cup so he grabbed mine and dumped half of it in, all while the member wasn't really paying attention so when she came around with the hot water she assumed I wanted some... thanks Elder Kelley. It wasn't as bad this time- becuase we had honey and milk instead of just water. But I still don't understand why anyone drinks it. Hot chocolate it where it's at everybody. 

Sunday we did a bunch of pass-bys of less actives and we found this lady we'd tried to find earlier in the week but she wasn't there. We knocked on the door we thought it was and the woman said she had a neighbor by that name but didn't know her last name anyway long story short we decided to try the other doors and just see if we could find her. And we did! But she just said "ca m'interest plus!" [that doesn't interest me anymore] and tried to get us to go away but she just seemed really sad so we offered to just pray with her and she accepted. She's had a really hard life and a lot of trials but it was really great to be with her and just for a minute try and help her see that there is light and hope in the world. I just remembered a letter Erik wrote to me, that we are here to listen and love people and help them. We want to teach them the gospel but the most important thing is just that they feel God's love for them. 

I love you guys so so much, thanks for the support, couldn't do it without you guys!! You rule. 

You're good you're great you're wonderful.

sir hansen

In Fougères

"We had poutine today - (not the swear word in French, the Canadian thing with fries and cheese and gravy)"

"I seriously see Jeanne everywhere"

Week 26 - Carrot cake and Caro

Place Sainte-Anne

Hey everybody! 

This week we did lots of missionary work. 

Monday- taught soiree familiale with a couple of recent converts and this really sweet couple in charge of the young adults. They gave us carrot cake and I tried Caro. It's NASTY. It's what members here drink instead of coffee because it doesn't have caffeine and comes from some kind of plant. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever had. You could not pay me to ever drink Caro again. 

We had exchanges in Nantes on Wednesday, I was with Sr McOmber who served in Rennes for a little while so it was fun to ask her questions about that. She's great. She's new to Nantes so we just went for like a two hour walk and contacted, it was a beautiful day. That night we taught an awesome lady named Egle, from Lithuania, her name apparently means Christmas tree or something like that. It was in English which always makes me nervous and she's worked as a journalist so she was just full of really good questions which is great but also very stressful. We taught the Retab [Restoration] and got to testify a ton and she was so so touched. Probably one of the most powerful rendez-vous I have ever gotten to be in. It was a beautiful experience. (that's me channeling Sr Hopkins... which would be funny if you guys knew Sr Hopkins)

Friday we got to go out and contact with the Laurels in the ward! Only two could come which was perfect because that meant Sr Back and I didn't have to get split up because I would have just gotten lost with a poor jeune fille [young woman]. It was super fun! 

Saturday we went to Fougères and had a mangez-vous [dinner appointment] with some members. They were sweet. Gave us nutella because we're sister missionaries in France and they love us. 

Fougères

Yesterday we had church. Comme d'habitude [as usual]. Then we did some planning because we had no other time to do it- but we did have the chance to go out and do some work before because other wise we just die in the apartment. 

Today it is raining like crazy, and the heat and hot water in our apartment is out. Rennes is great, it's just really really wet. Really wet. It's super pretty. Place Sainte-Anne is super confusing but it's really cool. 

The apartment is really nice and has those sweet shutters that shut out all the light at night. And I love these soeurs so so much. We watched Legacy together the other day so basically bonded for life.

It's been a great week!

Love you guys lots! 

Soeur Hansen

Week 25 - First Week in Rennes

New companion - Sister Back

Hey crew-

Sorry. I have zerrooo desire to write about this week. 

But I'm going to because I love you all and Elder Scott told us we have to when I was in the MTC. Obeying the counsel of the apostles. It's a good thing to do. 

Monday and Tuesday were basically just me and Sr Anderson running around trying to get everything done and see everybody that I wanted to see. That meant that we rode the C2- the little electric bus that runs through Tours and is sweet. The picture is of me with PURE joy. 

Wednesday we got up stupid early to head into Paris, and I met up with Sr Stevens to head back out to Rennes. Sr Back (my companion) and Sr Ellis (Sr Stevens' companion) stayed in Rennes and sent their companions into Paris for transfers. Which meant we had a lot of luggage between us. Thankfully there were missionaries and random helpful strangers to get us there. I think we see the most miracles of the entire transfer on transfer day. 

Rennes sister missionaries

Anyway- met Sr Back. She is AWESOME. Seriously, she's a rockstar. She's from Holladay, Utah and is a fantastic missionary. Like I cannot say enough good things. 

That night we did some contacting and went to Soiree Familiale, with like the young adults. There are young adults here. Who like run the show. Like they brought the supplies and did the spiritual thought and like just made it all happen. It was beautiful. Like Tours, you will always be in my heart and I love you. But this is the promised land. 

Thursday-Saturday. Did missionary work. Taught a LOT because Sr Back is a master contactor. Like she is seriously whipping me into shape and it's awesome. We're doing so much finding and it's killing me but we gotta find somebody to teach somebody. It's great. Missionary work rules. 

Sunday was nuts. NUTS. Funny part- we got to the chapel and Sr Stevens goes "guys, I forgot my plaques!" hahahaha so we made her a ghetto nametag with one of mine. Then the ward started showing up. The WARD. It was like maybe 80-100 people but I was SO overwhelmed. I'm pretty sure my last Sunday in Tours there were like maybe 30 people there. What is this? A ward!

Today- went grocery shopping and were back in the apartment in like less than an hour. Miracles. I love Rennes. I love living in a four man apartment. These sisters are so fun. Sr Stevens is from Salem too which is super cool! Sr Ellis is from Boise. They're the best. Sr Stevens and I were talking the other day about how there's no way we're all staying together for two transfers, it's just too good.

Then I took Sr Back to go find Lush [French cosmetics store] because she'd never been. We geeked out for a while. This lady, who is from California, told us all about these sweet shampoo bars (like soap bars but of shampoo, sweet I know) and then the other soeurs showed up and geeked out with us and we are going to have a really nice smelling bathroom after this. Lush is magical. 

And now we're here. In the internet cafe. It's been CRAZY. Crazy intense and I cannot believe I was in Tours last Monday. That feels like another life. 

Rennes! It's great!

LOVE YOU ALL! 

Soeur Hansen 

PS - More pictures from Tours, before I left:

"It snowed in Tours!"

Soeur Soeur, from Tahiti

"This terrible ad in Tours that I thought was funny."

French National Team sweatshirts, thanks to Nike France!

     

Week 24 - Sisters Conference and First Transfer

On the River Seine before Sisters Conference in Paris

FAM!!

Well, I'm leaving my bleuville. Going to Rennes! From what I've heard it's beautiful, cold, rains a lot and there's a metro. The ward is giant and I'll be in a four-sister apartment so that's fun! 

My new companion's name is Soeur Back, from Salt Lake City. She's a transfer behind me, and just got done being trained by a fantastic missionary so I'm really excited but kind of freaking out. 

It's just been a really surreal last couple of days as it's starting to hit me that I'm leaving Tours, and I probably won't be back here anytime soon! Church was very odd yesterday. Took lots of pictures, apparently this branch really loves me and Elder Oviatt (he's leaving too) and basically just got super nostalgic. 

This week we did lots of missionary work. Here's some highlights.

Wednesday night we had a Soiree Familiale with Soeur Soeur. Yes, her name is "Sister Sister." She is Tahitian and awesome and we love her. We made a giant cookie and put ice cream on top and basically just pigged out. She's about 5 months pregnant so we talked about how important families are and it was wonderful. 

MTC Friends: Sisters Walton and Blackhurst

Friday we had our Sisters Conference! It was AWESOME. Each STL equipe [sister training leader team] did a little lesson about different subjects that had been suggested by the soeurs of the mission- companionship communication, exercise/well being, competition, stress... things like that. Then Soeur Babin told us we're all daughters of God and we have immense worth and President taught us a deep breathing exercise for dealing with stress. We just breathed in and out for like 5 minutes listening to calming ocean sounds. Missionary work is hard guys. I got to see all my soeurs and it was just SO SO good. I loved it. The baptism we were going to go to on Saturday in Versailles got cancelled so we headed back to Tours that night. 

Maren with her three companions so far

Saturday we were helping a family in the branch move and the elders showed up about an hour after we got there (they were at the other apartment) and were like "why haven't you been answering the phone, the assistants are trying to call you" and we were like "yeah whatever." But it turned out we had 5 missed calls from the APs. Whoops. But we called 'em back and Sr. Anderson is going to be training! again! It took me like 5 minutes to realize that if she's training I was leaving so then I started freaking out about where I was going but we couldn't check the transfer list because we were in the middle of helping someone move. Needless to say, longest hour ever. 

Rennes!! [Rennes is a city in northwest France, about 200 miles west of Paris, in Brittany. The population is about 200,000, including over 60,000 students.]

Yesterday and today have been totally crazy, getting the apartment clean, starting to pack, setting up RDVs to go say goodbye to people. It's great.

I've got tons of pictures this week so that should make up for my lightness on details! yay! That's what you guys want anyway!!

Today is the Jour des Crêpes, or Chandeleur - gonna celebrate! [everyone eats crêpes, and the tradition is that you hold a coin in one hand, and the crêpe pan in the other, and if you successfully flip the crêpe, you will prosper in the coming year.] 

LOVE YOU SO SO MUCH 

you are all children of God. 

Soeur Hansen 

The center of Paris, in front of Notre Dame

"My study desk - always tidy :)"

Took a bunch of pictures of the members and missionaries in Tours - will miss them all so much!