Home.

"I'm sittin' in a railway station, got a ticket for my destination"

Hey team! 

I'm not really sure how I can possibly summarize this week/transfer/18 months into one final, all-encompassing email. There's no way to do it justice, but I'll give it my best shot. 

I love my mission. It has not been easy and I think for many people (myself absolutely included) that loving the mission comes gradually as we are able to reflect on our experiences with the perspective of already having passed through them. There were moments, including during this week, when I did not love my mission. When it's raining and you're freezing and the one rdv you had that day got cancelled. It's not easy. But the feeling you get at the end of the day when you went and did it anyway is worth the freezing toes and disappointments. 

Throughout the mish there are times we do things that don't really make sense, or things we frankly don't want to do- like knocking on doors in the pouring rain or going to lessons with people when the odds seem stacked against us or talking to people in centre ville, or wandering around on our deserted street in the dark because it's not quite nine o'clock yet and the bell hasn't rung. But when we're in those situations my comps and I have reminded ourselves that "we must really love Heavenly Father" and at the end of the day, that's why we do it. We love Heavenly Father, and He loves all His children. 

And He is so grateful that we do it. 

I have not been a perfect servant but luckily God doesn't need us to be perfect! In fact, He gave us a Savior because part of the plan was for us to not be perfect. And the Atonement is real, even for missionaries. All Christ asks is that we put our trust in Him and keep going. He can and He will change us. That's why He wants us to be obedient and to work and to try, it's because "He can make of us a masterpiece, while we only make of ourselves a smudge." 

So I am grateful that we do it. I am grateful to have been here and to have been given the opportunity to love and serve and teach these people. Stubborn and difficult as they are, they've sure earned a place in my heart. 

"I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow-creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again"

Heroes get remembered but legends never die. 

Soeur Hansen

1 Corinthians 1:17 

Week 75 - 7 Books in 7 Days

Hello family! 

Yes, as you have all noticed and mentioned, this will be my last full week as a missionary. Thank you for reminding me. 

But right now I'm going to talk about last week! It was a really good week and really quick despite the fact that it was basically all day finding days everyday haha. So I've got less than no envie [desire] to try and remember stuff from every week so I'm just going to throw some random experiences at you! 

This week we set the goal to give a Book of Mormon to someone everyday - 7 books in 7 days. It's a goal I set a long time ago but never actually seriously tried to do it, so obviously the perfect time is my second to last week haha. 

Monday we only had a little time to contact and didn't find anyone which was a bummer, so I was like "it's fine, we'll do two tomorrow" but THEN at the rdv we went to there was this random friend there who wasn't super interested but she accepted a BofM! Thanks Heavenly Father! 

Then throughout the week we found out it was actually pretty easy to give people free books haha. By Saturday we'd given 6, one a day. But we were out of the ville for most of the day and we needed to plan, so we only had a little time. So, like the good missionaries we are, we prayed and did our best to follow the spirit and talk to everyone. Which meant we ended up walking up and down the same rue like three times and then wandering down a random path where there's never anyone. EXCEPT THAT DAY. The first people we saw were a couple and I hate contacting couples but I did it and they took the book! Victory! We said a big fat gratitude prayer and then did our weekly planning.

The spirit guys. It's real. 

And now a quote. That I found in a Liahona I was reading. Cracked me up. It's Boyd K. Packer I believe. 

"If the question is asked, 'You mean you are out to convert the entire world?’ the answer is, ‘Yes. We will try to reach every living soul.’ Some who measure that challenge quickly say, ‘Why, that’s impossible! It cannot be done!’ To that we simply say, ‘Perhaps, but we shall do it anyway.’"

Some words of wisdom for you. Have a great week! 

Soeur Hansen

PS the members here are awesome, we were supposed to have a raclette fete on Tuesday which got cancelled so our dmp and a ward missionary couple had us over for raclette anyway. They're the best. 

Week 74 - Valenciennes Sees Miracles

We made caramel au beurre salé

Hello family!

Can I just express one more time how excited I am to be done writing these emails haha. I mean there's a Soeur who went home in November still going strong writing weekly emails but like no way Jose. Sorry in advance Reese.

But since I still have the chance to write you guys I guess I should be grateful and make the best of it and have a positive attitude and all that other stuff I've learned about in the last 17 months haha.

So yeah.

Two stories to share.

One comes from last week but I forgot and it needs to be shared. MIRACLE. So last Saturday we were trying to make lunch but realized our shredded emmental cheese that we stole from the elders' now vacant apartment had gone moldy! What are soeurs to do! We came up with something else but during our trajet home we were trying to decide what we wanted for dinner and everything involved cheese! So we tried to stop by Carrefour but it was closed! We resolved to just make quiche pockets without cheese so I started cracking eggs and Soeur Gilbert grabbed some other stuff from the fridge. INCLUDING A BAG OF EMMENTAL! It was definitely out there by angels. We called it the miracle cheese and shared that as our miracle of the week in district meeting. #valenciennesseesmiracles.

This week was good but I don't really have anything interesting to share until Sunday! Actually the week was a little rough- plans just kept falling through and it was a little frustrating.

So Saturday night we got a call from the dmp [ward mission leader] to tell us that church
was cancelled. CHURCH! [apparently the heat in the chapel was not working] We were dying about that haha like literally everything fixed from the week had fallen through including dmp and conseil de paroisse [ward council], that we have every week. And CHURCH was cancelled haha. Raged a little but then we got over it. So we started calling leaders to figure out what to do and long story short we ended up going to Lille for church! It was super weird because we didn't know anyone, didn't have to do anything, didn't have amis to wait for/watch over. We called it vacation. Plus we got to see other missionaries! And I met Henri-Paul Doit, one of Dad's companions! He says hi Dad!

With Bishop Doit in Lille

Elder Doit and Elder Hansen - Montauban, France 1979

So then we get to the gare to take our train back... The train broke down! They made a couple announcements and then finally were like "the next train's at 18h35. Get off" haha. So we had to wait like 40 minutes. We called our DL who's in Lille because they were going to try and get us some stuff for a member in Valenciennes and asked them to bring us some apples cause we were hungry and they had that haha. So they show up at the gare half an hour later with a bag of food - apples, oranges, a granola bar, a sleeve of cookies, a baguette and a pizza they'd just taken out of the oven haha. Best DL ever award. That time going to church took the entire day.

Today we took some pictures (miracle in itself), did our normal tour around the mall, and made caramel that a JA in Rennes used to make that Soeur Gilbert had the recipe for! Yay! Caramel au beurre salé. [caramel with salted butter]

So yeah. I think that's everything!

LOVE you guys!

Soeur Hansen