A change is gonna come...

The first person is Hermana Criss and us cooking with her and the second is of some of the sisters at zone conference.

Wow! It's been a wonderful and busy week. Full of adventures and goodness! This last monday a sweet hermana in our ward, Hermana Criss, taught us how to cook some yummy little hispanic goodies. She taught us how to make home-made tortillas, wonderful quesadillas, gorditas, and picaditas. Yum! We had such a wonderful time with her and she is such a little hispanic woman- so proud of her cooking and so good at it. I'm excited to make them for all of you when I get home!

Elizabeth, one of the people we are teaching was a tender mercy for us this week. She's 14 and so sincere about wanting to know about God. This week when we went to teach her, she was with two friends and we invited them to join us for the lesson. We talked about being daughters of God and what that means and how it can help us. They really listened up and had a lot to say about that. They are such sweet girls that just want to do what's right in such a crazy world. During the lesson we were also talking about praying and Elizabeth told us she had something she wanted to say. She got very serious and with a trembling voice, she thanked us for teaching her how to pray and that she could really talk to God about anything. She said that she's been praying every single night since we first taught her and she knows that God is answering her prayers. Also every night she prays to know if what we are teaching her is true and she said that she's felt so strongly that it is true. She loves reading the Book of Mormon and really feels so much peace. Oh my goodness! Hearing that is honestly the best thing ever! It's so incredible to see God's hand in someone's life and to feel of His love that He has for them. She finished the lesson by baring her testimony to her friends that this will also help them. It was so beautiful to see the light in her eyes.

This week I finished my mormon.org account. Starting in October, the chruch will have ads, commercials, and billboards all over Pheonix valley about mormon.org and we are so blessed to be here now to see the effects of this. It's so cool to see what purposes the Lord has for modern-day technology. And we're excited to reach more people about the gospel. All of you that get to read this really should check out this website. This website was created under the direction of the prophet and it truly is inspiring, especially the videos and profiles. All members are encouraged to make their own profile so that people can see how the gospel has blessed their lives.

Patricio, our little friend that is trying to give up smoking is doing well. He still has a lot of opposition, but he difinitely has "ganas" or a deep desire to follow God. Yesterday he told us that his boss might transfer him to another city about 2 hours away, so he might be moving. We are praying that he won't, but we know that whatever happens is God's will. He has a bapism date for October 8th and we hope that he can continue to progress towards that.

Luis is also working towards his baptismal date. Yesterday his friend was using his car, so he walked for probably 20 minutes to get to the church. He knows he needs to be baptized and we can feel of God's love for him. We know that baptism will help him overcome his past and start a new life in Christ by fulling using the Atonement. We're excited for him.

Another adventure from this week is that we were able to go on exchanges with the engish sisters in our area. I was able to go the the english area with Sister Makela, one of the incredible english sisters in our mission. It was amazing to see the work in the english area. It is blooming and they are having huge success and I am so happy for them! We taught this awesome lesson about the restoration to this wonderful lady, Arie. She has been searching for a church that will help her to have a personal relationship with Christ. As we were teaching, the scriptures that we shared really spoke to her and she felt like this is what she was looking for. She told us that she felt that this was it and her search was over. Sister Makela and I felt the Spirit so strong and knew that this was exactly what we needed. We were able to testify from the conviction in our hearts that this was what she was looking for. There are so many people out there that are prepared and ready for this truth and we just need to find them. The rest of our exchange was amazing. I learned so much from Sister Makela and how to improve in our area.

As many of you know, this weekend was the general broadcast for the Relief Society. Wasn't it incredible?! I felt the Spirit so strong and saw so many ways in which I could improve and also felt much comfort. I especially loved the talk on charity by Sister Allred and the talk by Elder Uchtdorf of the 5 forget-me-nots. And isn't the new Daughters in my Kingdom book amazing?! It just gets me even more excited for conference this next week!

Last night we visited with Hassan. He is such a wonderful kid and he's slowly, but surely working towards a greater relationship with Christ. He's been praying and reading a little bit. We hope to get him to conference this week. He has such a strong testimony and it's only a matter of reminding him about that.

So transfers are coming up in about a week or so. Hermana Norton told me that every time she is leaving an area she can just feel it. I've been praying that I would be prepared for whatever happens this transfer and this week I think I might have gotten my answer. I don't know how to discribe it, but I feel like I'm on the last little bit of my time here and that I'll be leaving this area. It's sad because I love this area and I love Hermana Norton. I love the people, but I also think that I need to experience more in the mission. Now, I could be wrong, but just in case, all of you that send me letter this week, send it to the mission address until I tell you otherwise:
1871 E. Del Rio Dr.
Tempe, AZ 85282

Well, I love you all. By next week I should know if I'm leaving or not. Have a wonderful week and God Bless!

love,
Hermana Anneli
Hansen

God is Good

It's been a pretty crazy, but very wonderful week. We've planned for a lot of lessons, but a lot of them have fallen through for one reason or another, but we've been blessed with many other things to be involved in. It has been a week full of laughter and joy and even though we aren't seeing the success we would want, I know the Lord is blessing us to be able to learn and enjoy the time we have here together. We see miracles every single day and for that, I am humbly grateful. I love Tempe and I love serving here. These last 5 months have been wonderful. There are only about 2 and a half more weeks in the transfer and I have no idea what's going to happen, but I'm going to enjoy the time that I know I have here while I can.

Patricio is doing awesome! This week he's been having a lot of opposition and he's been fighting it like a champion. He realizes that something is trying to keep him from this amazing step he's about to make to baptism and he knows that he's stronger than any opposition, so he's pushing through. He just has this light about him every time we see him and he calls us his "angels". He also came to church this week and everything he heard really hit him and gave him that extra strength he needs to make it through. We are so grateful for his example of courage and determination to do what is right.

This week we stopped by a former investigator named Socorro. She was talking to missionaries for a long time, but her husband (boyfriend) is having a hard time accepting the gospel, and they aren't married and he doesn't want to get married right now. While we were visiting with her we told her we didn't know a lot of people around her house and so she said "Let's go meet some people". So she basically took us out around her neighborhood to OYM and talk to people about the gospel. Crazy! But it was even more incredible! While on our walk she told us that she has been reading the Book of Mormon and that she believes it to be true. Then we met a girl that she knows and she introduced us to her and started baring her testimony about how much the missionaries have changed her life. She kept saying, "if you just listen to them, they will change the way you see life and you will be a lot happier." It was amazing! We had no idea she had such a strong testimony! What an unexpected miracle!

On wednesday we had the chance to go to the Mesa Temple. Again, about 5 zones came and we had so many missionaries there at once. It's so special to be in the temple with so many missionaries. The spirit is so wonderfully strong and you know that all of them are spending all of their time and efforts bringing others closer to Christ. And after the session, it was wonderful to have them all in the celestial room together, like a big family reunion. Right now, because I'm away from all of you, these missionaries are my family. And we don't get to see each other very often, so when I see them I realize what it will be like in Heaven when we get to be reunited with those that we love so much forever. It truly is like Heaven. I can't wait!

The 15th of September is a big holiday in mexico. It's Mexico's Independance Day and Mexican's go all out for it. Our ward had a wonderful activity this week for it and they all dressed up in traditional mexican attire, including us as missionaries. The elders had bandanas and sombreros and the hermanas (us) had a blouse and long skirt with a red flower in our hair (see the picture). We really enjoyed ourselves and felt very mexican. One member of our bishopric saw our outfits and said, "Now this is the way our Heavenly Father wants His daughters to look." :) The food that they served was amazing mexican food, frijoles (beans), sopa (they call it soup, but it's actually a salad), of course tortillas, and carne asada (the meat of Mexico). And then we had a little program of songs and dances from Mexico. As full time and ward missionaries we all sang Cielito Lindo, a really famous Mexican song, and it was really silly, but really fun. This ward is such a blessing and it was so fun to share more in their culture this week.

Before the activity we also had another incredible opportunity. There is a man in our ward that had fallen away and had been excommunicated, but wanted so much to repent and stay strong in the gospel. He has worked hard for over a year to fully repent of his sins and this weekend he was able to be rebaptized. He asked me to sing at his baptism, and while I sang for him, I felt such a love for him and knew that Heavenly Father was so proud of him and that all of his sins had been forgiven through the Atonement of Christ. I know the Atonement is real and that was a really special, sacred experience for me to be a part of.

I know this is kind of a long email, but there's even more to tell. Last night we were OYMing (talking to people on the street about the gospel), and we had two very interesting conversations. One man that we talked to was very against the church. He told us that there were a lot of things that he did not agree with that he had learned about us from his church. He began to talk about a lot of things that he had heard that we did or believed in that were not true. We tried so hard to tell him that they were not true and to help him realize the truth, but he was very closed minded. Seeing that man, just made me sad that there are people out there that really do want to decive others about what we as a church believe in. And it made me so grateful for the chance to be a missionary and to try to help people see the truth. We also had the opportunity to talk to a man that just got out of jail. Because of his circumstances, he is jobless and homeless right now and he's trying to figure out his life. He actually came up to us and talked to us. He previously had many prejudices about our chruch, but he feels like he could use a little bit more help in his life. We had a really good conversation with him and bore our testimonies to him. It's amazing to see that God has helped to humble him to be able to turn to Him a little bit more.

Basically, it's been a wonderful week and we've had a lot of fun. I thank God everyday that I have the chance to be on a mission. Sometimes I can't believe that I actually am here on a mission and serving God fulltime. What an incredible chance that I have to do this and even though time is going fast, I'm so glad that I still do have time to continue to grow and learn and help more of His precious children. God is so good!

I September in Arizona

I've found that in the longest weeks of my mission, that is where I grow the most. So far, this transfer has been filled with long weeks, so I know I have a lot of learning to do. We saw the hand of the Lord in the work so many times this week. It was incredible! And we also had some harder experiences, but it's all good.
This week we taught Chris and Jesse, these two less actives that we are working with. We had an amazing lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ. They both are growing in their testimonies and the spirit was so strong. These two are not afraid to share their testimonies or their beliefs. They know this is true, they just need to find their way back. Jesse shared a Christian rap that he wrote with us this week. It was awesome! :) After the lesson, we gave them each a note card with their names on it and told them to write down one thing that they want to do this week to be closer to God. They took it really seriously and made some really good goals. Also, we got a text from them this week telling us that they talked to their neighbor about the gospel and gave him a Book of Mormon. Yay!
One of the greatest things that happened this week was in a lesson we had with Patricio. He is an investigator that we have that has been trying to give up smoking. To support him, we've been giving up chocolate, which is a lot harder than it seems, but we love him and want to help him. We had kind of a last minute lesson with him and went there not knowing what to teach or what to say, but the Lord guided us. During the lesson he told us that he had prayed specifically about many things, one of them being the Book of Mormon, and he had received very clear answers to all of his prayers. He knows that the Book of Mormon is true and has a great desire to follow God. We talked with him about how we knew the Lord had a great plan for him and that this was his time to follow Him. The Spirit just glowed from his eyes and we could all feel the confirmation that this was all true. He gave us his last pack of cigarettes and signed it promising God that he would not smoke anymore. Wow! He is going to be baptized on October the 8th. Sometimes I am just so blown away at these incredible experiences that I can have and how precious these people are to God. Since our lesson, Satan has been working on Patricio and he had some things come up that kept him from coming to church, but I have faith that the Lord has a plan for him and He will help him through this time.
Luis is also getting baptized on the 8th. This week he told us that he has no doubts about the church. NO DOUBTS! He wants to make this change in his life and he's really excited. And he's been living the commandments so well. We are just so proud of him! He also just needs to learn the importance of coming to church. :)
It has been amazing weather here in the last few days. Cloudy and cool and it even rained a little. There was one night that we came outside and I felt like I needed a little sweater. It's been about 80-100 degress lately and I love it. People say it won't last, but so far, I love Septembers in Arizona!
We did a lot of biking this week, which was good, but for some reason, Satan is working on us and we had a lot of hard experiences while doing it. We talked to some people that were very against the church and had some kind of humiliating experiences. But that's okay. We're here to serve the Lord. Last night I was listening to the song "I feel my Savior's Love". I thought about how much I've felt His love in my life and because of that I know that I will "follow Him, give all my life to Him".
This week I've remembered the importance of gratitude. I know that life never is going to be perfect, especially while I'm a missionary, but it's important to be grateful for the things we have. Yesterday in church, a lot of situations we have with the ward, with less actives, and with investigators were weighing down on us, but I knew that I should focus on the good. In my journal I wrote down all the blessings we'd recieved and my blessings out weighed the trials 3 to 1. Gratitude is such a help, such a divine virtue.
Looking back on all that has happened so far this transfer, I feel like this is a transfer of stretching and of healing. I can see the Lord molding me and shaping me into something better and I feel so blessed that He cares enough about me to want to make me better. I truly feel His love in my life even amidst the stretching. I see so much support here from the sweet members of our little ward and can't help but just love them to death! How great is God that He knows better what we need and works such amazing things in our lives that we couldn't ever have dreamed of!

Con Amor,
Hermana Anneli Hansen