Week 53 - End of Transfer 8

FAMILY!

Hello! Had a good week six of the transfer, all the Soeurs are staying for another and three of the four elders - Elder Jouffray is leaving for Calais, he was in my branch so we'll be having a new elder up here - Elder Reiss who was actually in my MTC district with me. One year later and we're together again haha. It's going to be a great transfer- number 9! So crazy!

So there were a lot of things that happened this week but I mostly just want to talk about two experiences, maybe three. We'll see how it shakes out.

Thursday we went down to Lille to do a week six exchange (usually you only do one per transfer but we did a second one because we wanted to). It was really great-- it POURED and was freezing, which I didn't know before we left Liège so I was just wearing a sweater and got SOAKED. Thankfully sweet Soeur Back is in Lille so I ended up wearing her
clothes and one of her jackets for the day haha. But it was a really good exchange- got to ask some questions and get some advice and just talk out some stuff with someone. You've always got your comp but sometimes its nice to change it up.

Sunday we had a full day planned (which is weird, usually if we're trying to fix something for sunday its for them to come to church but we ended up having some people that had to change their RDVs and it fell to sunday so anyway) We had a member that we took to two RDVs, (she's a GEM. seriously so kind of her to come to two back to back) and she was just great. The one I wanted to talk about though was the second one- it was with "L" and "P". So the other day we taught the law of chastity and they we like "ça va pas" not okay with it. They were really confused and kind of frustrated that we'd not told them sooner that they had to be married if they wanted to keep living together and get baptized, they
were NOT okay with that one. So it was a little "delicat" for a couple of days- they ended up canceling a RDV and I was pretty sure we'd lost 'em. But they said we could come sunday night. SO we show up at their house with this member and Pascal answers the door holding their Books of Mormon and all their brochures, baptismal calender EVERYTHING. And my heart dropped. Like gone. So he starts explaining that they're super not interested anymore because of some reasons that are really flimsy and he tries to use the Bible to justify stuff and I'm like "nope, sorry, those don't hold up" but trying to be all patient and charitable and answer his questions. So we talk for a second and then Soeur Archbold is just like "just let us talk one more time" so surprisingly he lets us in, gets "L" and we
start talking.

So we start talking about commandments and explaining all that and answering questions and turning them to the Restoration and everything and come to find out that the real issue, for "L" at least, was that she thought we were telling her she wasn't welcome anymore and that we were ditching
her if she didn't want to get married. She's had a super hard life so we were able to tout de suite correct that misunderstanding and kept our ami! It was like 100% by the spirit though- such an intense RDV. But a total miracle so thank you for all the prayers!!

Voila, my thoughts for the week- God answers prayers.

I gave a talk this week. I think it was probably about 4 minutes long. Wowww.

Yep. The mission's good.

Love you all, have a great week!

Soeur Hansen

Week 52 - One Year!

Place du Vingt Août in Liège
[Vingt Août means August 20, the day Maren went into the MTC]

FAM! 

It's been a really good week- kind of like a normal week but lots of good stuff. So I'm going to pull the REALLY exciting day by day format and hope that I don't forget anything.

MONDAY

Came to the church to email. One of the elder's amis came up on the same bus with us, he was coming to the FHE we have monday nights. But got here at 3:30. FHE starts at 6:30. So he just hung out. And then had to leave early from FHE. And he was the only person that ended up coming (all the members were sick or out of town) SO awkward. But one of those experiences you can only have as a missionary. 

TUESDAY

Honestly can't really remember. We did some porting for like 45 minutes, it was really hard. I haven't ported in months because it's pretty much the worst. It's not like worse here than other places, porting just makes my soul cry. and on that note....

WEDNESDAY

Zone Conf. In Strombeek- (Bruxelles) The chapel is technically in the Belgium Netherlands mission so that's pretty funny. The entire zone and mission president left the mission for several hours. haha

It was a good conference, had interviews this transfer which are always really great. We were also supposed to get iPads (me and the couple other people who are still waiting) but they got stolen out of President's car on Tuesday night. 

I wish I was kidding when I say I was not expecting to actually get my iPad. Like I was hoping but I felt like it was a long shot haha. But they have enough to replace them so hopefully it will make it my way at some point. 

Zone Conference

Strombeek Chapel where we had zone conference

THURSDAY

??  I think we hung out with our super cool recent converts

FRIDAY

I don't remember

SATURDAY

We went out to visit a lady in another city in our sector who someone asked us to go see- she was so sweet. And had a sweet house. And she wasn't so sure about us at first (didn't even offer us anything to drink which is like a big deal) but we sang for her and then right after she was like "oh, voulez-vous boire quelque chose?" [would you like something to drink?] and we were like "ah yeah. the spirit" Finished off the day with some weekly planning. 

SUNDAY

Church, I taught the lesson in Relief Society which was a little stressful, it went okay, Sr Archbold was with the JAs, [Young Adults] (they do a JA relief society once a month) and it was a really small group so it went a little short but it went okay. It was really weird to teach without a companion though!! 

Then we went and passed by "L" because we hadn't seen her in a while. She wasn't there for our rdv and a couple other reasons so it was complicated but she's doing really good! Thanks for all the prayers!

Love you guys a lot, you're the best!!

Soeur Hansen

[On Maren's mission Facebook page, they posted a link to a YouTube video - two sister missionaries in the France Lyon mission, singing "I Love to See the Temple" in French. It's really beautiful - so great to see the excitement of the members and missionaries in France as they look forward to the Paris temple next year. Click here for the link]

Week 51 - A trip to Paris

Hey fam! 

So I was sitting here like "wow I've had so much time today I hope I'm not fogetting to respond to somebody" and then I realized I hadn't written my big email yet! whoops! 

This week was really good- lots of work and lots of fun stuff. I'll get you the lightning version (there were like 3 thunder storms this week! It was so fun to watch them from our balcony!) 

Monday- took a really nice nap. Did some missionary work

Tuesday- district meeting, Elder Stanford was super inspired for what he did for the formation [training at district meeting] which was really cool. 20 year olds can be super inspired for their amis and also for other missionaries, it's sweet. 

Wednesday- Taught some things to some cool people. Then that afternoon Soeur Facer and I got on a train to Paris!! We had to go in to do some French legality stuff at the same time so we did a little exchange and ditched our comps in Belgium. Stayed with Sr Ellis who's serving in St Ouen now! So fun. Went to the Arc de Triomphe. :) 

Thursday- went to do our legality stuff, so many things went wrong! The metro pass machine ate 10 euros so we had to go deal with that and then none of the tabacs (it's like a convenience store but only for like tobacco, lottery cards and magazines) had these stamp things that Sr Facer needed for her second year legality stuff. SO frustrating. Then we missed a train and had to wait super long but it's okay because in our wandering we found CHIPOTLE!!!!! There are like two in Paris and one happened to be at the gare where we were!! We were there at like 9 in the morning but I was like "WE ARE COMING BACK HERE" 

So we finished up our legality stuff (I'm legal in France... although I live in Belgium) then went to Chipotle, and went and ate it under the Eiffel Tower!! So much fun. I love Paris. Belgium is great but France is great too. 

Friday- we did some service, lots of fun. 

Saturday - Went to a wedding! The elders are teaching this couple (they've been investigating for about a year) and they just got married! They were so cute. But the religious ceremony (it's complicated here) was outside and it POURED. POURED. I felt so bad for them. The elders were running around trying to get water that was collecting out of the tops of the little tent things that were set up but as soon as they'd finished one side the other was full again. It was so sad but they were really good about it. 

Sunday- since like the whole branch was involved in the wedding most of them weren't there the next morning haha so there was a good 30 of us there maybe. Finished off the week with some weekly planning. 

Sorry this is such a lame email but it was a great week! We fixed a baptismal date with our ami "L". She lives with her boyfriend and we're not sure exactly how chastity is going to go over with them but she's really sweet and we love her and she loves us so if you guys could keep her in your prayers that would be just dandy. 

You're wonderful!! love you so so much! 

Soeur Hansen

"We had gauffres today"

Week 50 - Mattresses in the metro and making doughnuts

Hey Team!

We had a really great week but like I don't really remember what we did so like usual, I'm just going to start writing and then we'll see what comes out! 

Monday we did some shopping, hit up HEMA (it's like the French/Belgian Target) and got some cards for the birthday kids this week, love you lots Mama and Erik!

After that this week we just did lots of missionary work, saw some members, got to know the ville. 

We also had exchanges this week- went down to Lille so I got to see my dear Soeur Back. I love her so much. They changed apartments with the elders because theirs was kind of sketchy so we were helping them finish up moving some stuff- got to take some mattresses through the metro so that was once in a lifetime. It was fun to be in France, even though it was just right across the border, it just feels a little different. I miss it but I love Belgium. 

Friday we got to help one of our amis makes some doughnuts and Sr Archbold learned how to fry them. So we're basically professional. 

We had a really great experience with some of our amis - they're a couple that live together and have for a really long time. They've had really difficult lives but they're really sweet. They both grew up believing-ish in Catholicism so basically they know gospel words and not really what they mean. So we've been teaching them and finally they prayed! It was so cool, we taught them how to over the last two rdvs so in one he prayed and the next one she prayed. They were both really powerful, very simple heartfelt prayers. It's probably my favorite thing when amis pray for the first time. Hearing them start to really sincerely create that relationship with God is so amazing. ahh. Live for those moments. 

Other than that not much else to report, livin' it up in Belgium, eating lots of good stuff but not too much- don't worry mom. 

Frites with Soeur Archbold

Have a great week! You guys are the best! 

Soeur Hansen

Cats are everywhere in Belgium too

On exchanges with Soeur Rasband in Villeneuve d'Ascq

Week 49 - Loving Belgium and the Belgians

FAM!

Hey everybody that I love because you are awesome humans! I hope you've all had a really great week!!

We had a really great week this week- not sure exactly how to summarize it into something interesting for you all who are not missionaries but for those RMs out there- we did pass-bys and EVERYONE was home! so yeah. It was sweet. Felt so efficace. 

There were lots of really frustrating things that happened this week- RDVs falling through when we had members set up to come and amis not showing up to church, the norm persecution and such but it was really cool to see how much I have changed through the last couple months, because a lot of those things would have really just wrecked me, but now I feel like I'm actually able to handle it with a lot less rage crying haha, woot personal growth! But really, I think God periodically tests us to see if we will use what we've learned from previous trials and choose to react in a better way, the way we learned is better from going through that same situation before. (I don't know if that sentence made any sense but I don't know how else to explain it... sorry it's really hot here) 

Anyway, just something I was thinking about a little. 

Fam, I'm sorry I don't have more to report. Or even that many pictures this week- Liège isn't exactly the most beautiful place I've ever been haha. But it's lots of fun. 

It's really interesting to see the differences between the French and the Belgians, I'm not sure I've found all the little quirky differences yet but I've definitely noticed that the Belgians are much warmer- the French can be warm and open but it's more rare and it usually takes more time for them to open up to you. The Belgians also are much more likely to be overweight haha like I think I saw maybe like 10 obese people in France, they're ALL over in Liege. They just really like frites and gauffres. But over all I really am loving Belgium and the Belgians. It's lots of fun.

I think that's about all I've got for ya! 

You rule!!

Soeur Hansen

-- getting my ipad at zone conf in a couple weeks! stoked! everybody pray that they don't get stolen or broken or recalled or something!