Week 52 - 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 51 - 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 50 - 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! 

Week 49 - First Week in Liège

With Soeur Archbold at Château Vêves

FAMILY

Hey team! I made it to Belgium! It’s a crazy place! and Liege! I don’t really know how to describe it. It feels very different than France but I’m not sure exactly why or in what ways. So yeah this is a super interesting and helpful email so far. 

But I love Liège, the branch here is super cute and we have PEWS in the chapel!! In the other two villes I’ve been in there have just been chairs because the chapel is also the cultural hall so yeah! PEWS!!! So stoked! 

Liège chapel

I’m back living in a four-person apartment which is really fun and I’m living with Soeur Sabando who replaced me in Tours and was trained by Soeur Anderson! So it’s been really fun to hear a little about my beloved bleuville. 

"The view from our apartment"

But anyway, this week! 

Monday we went on a tour of Rennes with our awesome DMP, Frère Moal. I think I told you guys a little about it. So fun. I love those elders and Rennes so it was fun to just be all together with everybody before transfers! We had a really great couple of transfers together. 

Tuesday we got a bunch of passes from one of the equipes of elders that closed. (we have no missionaries in this mission any more!!) 

Wednesday was transfers which basically meant 12 hours of traveling. Two and a half hour train to Paris. We had to leave early because we needed to get Sr Walton to the training meeting so we got to Paris around 9 and my train to Bruxelles wasn’t until 2:30! So basically I just hung out in Chatelet (it’s our meeting place for transfers, it’s a metro station) and saw everyone I know in the mission which was really really fun. Then we got up to Brussels, and had to take another hour long train to get to Liège! 

So far since then we’ve been keeping busy running around, I’ve met a couple of our amis but I’ve still got a long way to go. They’re pretty cool! 

"super Liègeois apartment complex where a bunch of people we teach live..."

Today we were out with the Redds- the senior couple in Liège. They took us to a castle called Vêves, out south of Namur (they can take us out of our sector on pdays). It’s a really cool little medieval castle, super fun. Not really anything like my Loire Chateaux but it was still really cool- and it was somewhere the Redds hadn’t been so that was fun. After we went through Namur to get some lunch- really cute city. Lots of brick. Thats kind of Belgium’s thing I think, brick. and in Liege it’s dirty brick haha. 

Anyway, pretty good week, got some frites, got a gauffre so I’m pretty happy! 

Love you guys! 

soeur hansen

"Last photo from Rennes - this is the Portes Mordelaises, one of the original gates into the city- when you enter you had to promise to uphold and defend and protect it or something, pretty cool"

Week 48 - Transferred to Belgium!

Finishing up six months in Rennes

Hey guys this is going to be really really quick I'm so sorry! 

I'M GOING TO BELGIUM!! We got the repertoire [mission directory] on Saturday! Going to Liège! And Sr Walton is TRAINING! So freaking excited for her and for this new change! 

Uhh so many miracles this week- got some referrals which never happens so that was super cool! Just a really good well rounded week to end off this transfer. But I don't have my planner so I can't remember any of it! 

But I'll try. Here we go! 

We just worked really hard! 

Wednesday the zone lords set the goal for each of us to give out two Books of Mormon during the day so we tried to be all inspired during our contacting block and we gave one away! Last minute of our contacting time! To an older lady that I didn't want to contact but did any way! Miracles! 

Then Saturday we were finally able to meet with this referral from some members- she came to an activity a couple weeks ago and wants to learn about croyance [belief]. She's been studying the Bible and then plans to read the Book of Mormon and Koran and such. She's an atheist but interested. It was really really cool. She's about 16 and really good friends with a member family so we taught her there (such an amazing experience, like seriously I've been waiting for this my whole mission) it was a little all over the place with everybody teaching but we were able to really dive into her questions. She came to church with them the next day too! Soeur Rainer (whose house we were at) told us that she just absolutely LOVED doing that, she's a returned missionary and a great teacher, and she just told us how much she loved teaching again and how her kids got into it and how they were able to help this girl who is just searching. SO COOL. So fun.

Love you guys so so so much! Here I go à Liège!! 

Have a great great week! 

sr hansen!

"She's wearing Nikes!"

The sisters... and the sisters

Week 47 - Girls Camp and Tour de France

Family!!

I have so many things to communicate to you that it is hard to do in an email once a week but here we go anyway! 

Breaking it down by days- gotta stay organized. 

Monday. P day. Normal. Took a nap for like two hours which was heavenly. We'd planned to do some other stuff in ville but that did not happen. That night we had a rdv with "C" and "I". They're so fun. You never quite know what's going to happen, you have to just be ready to respond to anything and sometimes have really thick skin. But that little Chadian firecracker who contacted me on the metro 4 months ago has a pretty big place in my heart. As we were getting up to leave she and "I" start singing this totally African (but in French) hymn and sort of dance us out of the apartment. I would pay a million dollars for a film of that moment. 

Tuesday. I don't really remember but we did some contacting and walked around a lot. Got a referral from the elders. Woot. 

Wednesday. SUCH a good day. We went to Camp Jeunes Filles!! [Girls' Camp] So funny story for the start of this story- we'd been told we were going to to "camp" which in French sounds like "cahn" with a really nice French nasal ending, so we've been thinking this whole time that we were going to Caen, the city for the camp haha so we end up in this little town called Pouance or something and we're like "this is no where NEAR Caen!" duh. Soeurs. So yeah. French is definetly still not my first language. 

But Camp Jeunes Filles. SO fun. Such an amazing day. They asked us, the Angers soeurs and the Nantes soeurs to come up and do some classes, because the youth theme is "oh ye that embark in the service of God...." So Tuesday night the girls received their mission calls and then Wednesday was the MTC. 

When we first got there though, they wanted us to introduce ourselves and talk about why we were on missions, and focus on chapter one of PMG. So we did that, but the Nantes soeurs weren't there yet so we were sort of just filling time so we answered some questions and then sang the mission song and did notre object if [PMG - my purpose as a missionary], and then sang the mission song again haha. 

Then we did our little classes- ours was on effective studies and they wanted us to focus on how to study and apply the sciptures, and specifically the Book of Mormon. And then in the afternoon, the equipes [teams] (they were in trios because there were a lot of non members (10 of the 42 girls weren't members!!)) came and taught us in little spots around the campground and the lake it was next to. 

SO cute. So many just good little moments with those girls. 

And THEN President and Soeur Babin showed up. They were doing a fireside that night for the girls- we had permission to stay, even though it was late (Pres: "well, the president de mission isn't too far so...") but we had to leave with the leader that brought us to camp. But not before we took a selfie with him and sr babs! I love them so much. 

Such a spiritually enriching day. Seriously, Sr Walton and I were talking about it, just it was so fun to get to talk about our missions and how much they mean to us and remember how amazing this whole experience is. And five hours of language study was pretty good too. 

Thursday/Friday. Not nearly as interesting as Wednesday.

Saturday. TOUR DE FRANCE. We had a rdv in town so we thought we could go to it and then also be in centreville for when the Tour passed but when we got in there was NO way we could get to our amis house so we changed the time and then decided to take our lunch hour to wait for the Tour de France and then go off and our other stuff that day. And we ended up talking to this Irish couple for like an hour and a half. It was so so cool. They were very similar to French people (kind of believing but kind of not, lots of really interesting questions about us/belief in general) very tricky questions sometimes - very much a "not be confounded before men" moment which was cool. And it was just really nice to be able to talk and teach and testify in English! Usually its really hard but it was really cool. 

And then the tour passed! Bucket list! 

Sunday. Did some porting, met a peachy old man named Michael. 

And yeah. That was my week. So so so much information dumped on you- please enjoy the pictures. 

love you guys!

sr hansen  

Week 46 - Zone Conference and Peach Cobbler

With Sr Hopkins

 Hellloo

No climbing tree stories this week, sorry to report but we did do lots of other good stuff!

LIKE- zone conference, so fun to see everybody, Mama Hopkins [her trainer] is in my zone now! She's so old haha. We got to practice teach her and she was (in true mama hops fashion) almost in tears about how much my French has improved. So cute.

 

And we got our iPad! (singular) haha we got a call on Monday night from the STLs that the iPads got stolen from the mission office on Sunday night. Kind of a bummer, we've been waiting FOREVER for these dang things but it's just kind of gotten to the point that it's a joke. I feel really bad for President and Soeur Babin, they just looked so tired and stressed at zone conference. I know it's just been so frustrating for them to keep telling us that we're getting them (we had a mission conference about it!) and then to just not have it happen for so long. They redistributed so every equipe has at least one iPad, it's registered to the person who's been in the ville less time so it's technically Sr Walton's, they've started the ordering process again but last time it took like 4 months so I'm not holding my breath haha. 

But anyway, the rest of the week we've been busy downloading mormon messages and liahonas whenever we're at the church. 

Other than that we had a pretty good week, still hurting for some new people to teach but it's been good to get out and do some finding! 

"C" and her brother "I" are awesome, they're both reading and so engaged in our lessons. It's so fun to teach them, it gets pretty intense sometimes but they're just great. It's still cracking us up that we have a guy ami. It just doesn't happen in this mission haha. 

I'm trying to think of some miracles or some funny stories for you guys!

Fourth of July! We proudly wore our red white and blue! Ended up spending most of the day at a relief society activity learning about finding balance in our lives (missionary lives are crazy out of balance haha) and then teaching clarisse and isadore! We made BBQ chicken and baked potatoes for dinner and had peach cobbler! Well it was really like peach crumble/crisp because cobbler is really complicated. But it was so good! We were blasting motab "God Bless America" all day and breaking out into the star spangled banner randomly. It was so fun. 

I love you guys! don't have too many pictures for you this week but i'll get them sent along! You're great and thanks for all the love and support! 

maren