Outpouring of Blessings...

Well, it's been a splendid week! We've been seeing lots of blessings and miracles. I've been working on being such an exactly obedient missionary and doing everything right in teaching situations and everything, but it's made me a little stressed out. Hermana Parry pointed this out to me this week and helped me remember that I need to see the good that we are doing and see the miracles and just love it all. That was a huge slap in the face and a good one! So, we've been enjoying ourselves, working hard, but still loving whatever comes our way. It's been awesome. This week was transfers. We have a few new missionaries in our district and it's been fun to get to know them already. They're super different than the missionaries that they replaced, but it's been a blessing to have them here. I'm grateful for change and I'm grateful for the opportunity to be able to get to know new people and to learn from them. So, the situation with Eliana is finally figured out. She talked to our branch president and they decided it would be best if she got baptized in Chile. One of the hermanas in our ward is from Chile as well and is going to be down there this next week and is going to take Eliana to church, so that she can find the missionaries there and be taught and baptized there. I feel really good about that and I just keep praying that the Lord will help everything run smoothly. This week we taught Rosie and helped her to see the importance of reading the Book of Mormon. We brought a wonderful hermana in the ward that is good friends with her and she bore her testimony and it really effected Rosie. We read with her in the Book of Mormon and the Spirit was there. We also talked with her about baptism and she's praying about a date. Yay! We also started teaching a new investigator named Daniel. He is a young college student from Columbia (there are so many hispanic cultures here in Gilbert-not just Mexican). He's super awesome! He came to church last week and really felt the Spirit and is super sincere. And he already has great faith in Christ. When we met him he said "So you can help me know more about your church?" Blessings, blessings, blessings! Okay, since I've been here in Gilbert the baptisms have been pouring like crazy. This week Dee, a lady that we tracted into a few weeks ago, was baptized. The elders had taught her, but she still calls us "her girls". It was a really special experience. She's such a cutie-pie! She's an older lady that's been through a lot, but has such a great faith in the Lord. Elder Niederhauser got to baptize her and it was his first baptism, so he was nervous, but super excited. When she got into the water, she started to slip a little bit, but got a hold of herself and turned to everyone and said "I made it!" And then she was baptized and it was so beautiful. When she came out she looked surprised and turned to everyone and said "Hi!" You can't help but just love her. Life here as a missionary is awesome. I can't believe how different this area is compared to Tempe, or even Yuma. It's such an upper-class area and that makes the work completely different. This week we got to go to dinner in an apartment complex and we talked to a few people outside and it felt like I was back in Tempe and I missed it a lot, but I can't deny that I love Gilbert. The Lord just keeps pouring out blessings. Another thing that it different about this area is that Hermana Parry can't ride bikes because of intense allergies, so we're always in the car. I miss being on bikes a lot, but it's been a blessing to not have to feel so much of the heat this summer. Also, it's been raining quite a bit, which has also made it a ton cooler here. Anyway, life is good and God is great. Have a fantastic week everyone. Go spread the gospel! love, Hermana Anneli Hansen

Sister Hansen is coming home on Sept. 4th and her "homecoming talk" is Sept. 9th at 9:00. If you are interested in attending email me at andrealovesgary@yahoo.com and I can get you the address. The first picture if of Sister Parry and I street contacting in the rain. We had fun. The next 2 pictures are of a huge dust storm, the next is of 4 missionaries in the branch before transfers smiling like Hispanics(they don't). Then the next picture is of Dee at her baptism.

Gilbert!!!!!

Well, this was a pretty crazy week for me, but a very exciting one. As you can see, I got transfered here to Gilbert, which I'm super excited about. For some reason my whole mission I felt like I would serve in Gilbert one day. So far, I love it! My companion is Hermana Parry, a greenie that's almost been out for 5 months now. She's super awesome and such a hard working missionary. We've been having a ton of fun together and enjoying ourselves. She's from Woods Cross, UT- my first companion from Utah! We cover the Spanish branch here and then have two other wards. We white-washed into one of the wards and we're super excited to be working with them. The members here are super awesome and really involved in missionary work. But there are so many of them that I kind of feel like I'm back in Utah sometimes. That makes the work both easier and harder. It will definitely be a challenge for me to have to figure out the best way to find new investigators here. I think we're going to have to do a lot of member work. Anyway, it's all just really good. For the spanish branch we had a Father's Day activity this last week and it was so fun to get to know the members of the branch. They are so wonderful and true hispanics. :) We have three awesome investigators with baptismal dates here: Angela, Yovanka, and Elcy. Angela is married to a member and has been going to church for about 6 months and is super prepared. Yovanka is also married to a member and is very enthusiastic about the gospel. She's also from the Dominican Republic. It's awesome to see a black person speaking spanish. She's super sweet too! And then there's Elcy. She's from Honduras and is living with her member sister and is getting baptized in about two weeks. The area here is a lot more wealthy than other areas that I've served in, which is super different for me. It's really great to be in the valley again because I've been missing being able to learn from President and Sister Howes. I've already had multiple opportunities to be able to see them this last week. And it's fun to serve with different missionaries. It's a big zone and I haven't served with any of these elders before, so it will be good to learn from them and get to know them. Here's my address for now: 5332 E. Baseline Rd. #1065 Mesa, AZ 85206 Well, it was really hard to say goodbye to everyone in Yuma. We got to visit a lot of the people before I left and it was amazing to see how many people I was leaving behind and how many people I had grown to love and been able to help influence. One that was really hard was to say goodbye to Tami. She just got baptized this last saturday and I couldn't be there. But she blew-up a picture of me and put it on a stick, so that I could be there. :) I hope it all went well. This week everyone has been asking me how long I've been on my mission and it's been super hard to tell them that I've been out for 16 months. I can't believe how fast time has flown by! I never want to leave Arizona and it's even making the heat bearable for me. I just love being a missionary and helping people and I am so happy with how things have turned out. I'm determined to work my heart out while I still can and to worry about the future later. Well, I love you all. Please write me soon! Here's a scripture I've recently read that I love: Hebrews 6:10-11. love, Hermana Anneli Hansen

On to Bigger and Better Things!

Oh my goodness! It's been a crazy last week. The whole week I worried about transfers and a few days ago I got this feeling that I was staying and that's what I've been planning on since then. We got transfer calls this morning and I found out that.......I'm LEAVING! It's so sad because I just love, love the people here in Yuma so much! But it's also going to be a good adventure to be able to have more experience and to be able to have another area on the mission. Also, another thing is that all Spanish missionaries will only have Spanish work now. So, that means that for the rest of my mission I will only be doing Spanish work, which I'm so excited about. I've really missed it a lot. Let's see what else happened this week. Brent and Tawnie have not yet chosen a baptismal date, but they are working on getting married before July 21, which is Brent's baptismal date. Also, Tami is doing wonderful. I'm so sad that I'll be missing her baptism this week. I'm really going to miss her so much. But since Hermana Staples will be staying, she'll make sure the new English elders take good care of her. Also, we've been Elysa and Joe, the people I told you about last week, are on fire! They've been reading the Book of Mormon and have really seen a lot of joy come into their lives from it. When we went to visit them this last week, they were glowing and so excited. They both had had experiences separately this last week with seeing the power of the Book of Mormon in their lives. They seriously are on fire and we're super excited for them. But, we won't be teaching them which is super sad. This week we decided to visit a lot of people that had been contacted by other missionaries that had never been taught. We stopped by this one woman, Daniela, and it was a huge blessing. We had a simple lesson with her and she really opened up to us about some really serious things that have happened to her in the past. She's had a crazy hard life and she really just needs the gospel so much! We also had an awesome activity for the Spanish branch. It's a little hard to explain, but I'll do my best. We told everyone that we were going on a trip to "Hawaii" in a plane and we had everyone show up at the church. We decorated one room in the church to be the plane and it was awesome. It looked like a legit plane! And then we had 3 other rooms decorated to be each of the 3 kingdoms of glory. During the flight we had some problems with the flight and it "crashed" and it was like we were dead. We were able to take all of the people through each kingdom and talk about each one. In the last one when we talked about the Celestial Kingdom, the Spirit was there very strong. We had decorated the room in all white and I don't know how, but just to have us all their talking about it, we really felt the Spirit and a few of the branch members bore their testimonies. It was amazing! Although it is so sad that I'm leaving, I'm so excited that Hermana Staples gets to take over the area. She's such a capable missionary, but she's not very confident in herself and now she has the opportunity to see her potential. I love her so much! And she has seen so much success here in Yuma, so she'll be able to finish out strong and enjoy the end. And she's so happy that she's not missing any baptisms because a lot of her baptisms that she's had she's missed because of transfers. I'm so proud of her and I just love her so much! I feel a lot of peace about this change, but it's going to be sad to leave everyone. Well, that's all I can think about sharing from this last week. There's a lot to do, so I better go, but for now, write me at this address: 1871 E. Del Rio Tempe, AZ 85282 love you all, Hermana Anneli Hansen

Hace calor!

It has been a very inspiring week for me. We went to the TEMPLE! It had been 5 months since I did a session in the temple and I needed it so much! When I was in the temple I felt so much peace and kept praying that one day all the people that I've taught, less-actives, non-members, and recent converts can all be able to feel the peace of the temple and to stay true to those covenants. It was really wonderful experience for me. That night we got to stay with Hermana Farley and her companion, Hermana Escobar. It was so wonderful to be able to see how Hermana Farley has grown on her mission and to be able to catch up with her. We really haven't spent that much time with each other since the MTC. The next day we had a Sisters Training in Tempe. All the sisters came and we had some trainings from President and Sister Howes and from the Assistants. Every single time I go to Tempe I feel like I get to be inspired so much by the assistants. They are always such good missionaries, some of the best in the mission and are trying so hard to improve themselves. It was so inspiring to me to be able to learn from them and from President Howes. He gave a powerful training about being disciples of Christ and remembering who we are. I think the mission life can be really hard on our self-esteem at times as sisters, but President Howes helped us to remember that even if we're not perfect at everything, we have the Atonement to help us improve and we must remember how important we are to God. We also cleaned this super messy house for an investigator of some of the sisters in Tempe. Her house was really bad, but we were able to help her a lot. We were an army of about 30 people and we got a ton done. It was a special experience to do something for this woman that she would never have been able to do herself. There has been a lot of talk of transfers this last week, even though we still have a week and a half until they come. Since our zone has stayed the same for so long, I think that everyone is expecting big changes in the zone. Hermana Staples has only one transfer left and she doesn't want us to get split up. I am really torn about what I want to happen. I absolutely love it here in Yuma and have fallen in love with the members, but with only 2 transfers left, I would like to serve in another area, so that I have more than 2 areas my whole mission. Sometimes I can feel what's coming on, but I'm really not sure what will happen this time. I'm trying not to think or worry about it and to just be okay with anything, but it still comes up a lot in conversation. We had some great lessons too. We talked about the importance of marriage and family with Brent and Tawnie. We were bold with them and committed them to pray about getting married within the next few weeks. They thanked us for pushing them because they know that they need to get married and that they need to keep the commandments. It was an awesome lesson and I think we really gained their trust a lot. Tami is also doing super well. I don't know if I told you, but she's a crazy marathon runner and has run a marathon in every state and more. This weekend she had planned to run a marathon and we talked to her about keeping the sabbath day holy and she committed very strongly to it. She knows that it is super important and wants to keep the commandments. She's amazing and kind of committed us to run a marathon with her one day (on a Saturday of course). We just love her to death! We had a great lesson with a less active man named Jose. He has been inactive for years, but a long time ago went through the temple with his wife and kids. As we talked to him about his conversion he realized what he's been missing out on for so long and committed to start on this path back to church. He offered a very powerful prayer at the end of the lesson. It was a special experience. We also started teaching a new family, Joe and Elysa. They are amazing. They are prepared for the gospel. They have friends that are members and have had a lot of interaction with the church and have been interested in it for a little bit. We found them because Elysa approached us outside her apartment one day. When we taught them the Restoration and about the first vision, Elysa was very inspired. They are super awesome, but are going to be out of town a bunch during the summer, so we pray that we can still teach and influence them. I have also been able to spend more time with the hispanic members in the branch lately and I love it. They are close to becoming a ward and they are super motivated and excited about it. They are such a special people and I wish we had more Spanish work so that we could spend even more time with them. We keep praying for more Spanish investigators. Well, that's about all I can think of to say today. I hope all is well with all of you. Also, I still have a good 3 months on my mission, so don't let the letters stop just yet. :) Happy Summer! I am actually loving the heat here this year. I'm not sure how, but the Lord is helping the heat seem bearable to me. It's wonderful! love you, Hermana Anneli Hansen

Feliz cumpleanos a mi hermana!

This week was a wonderful week. We had many good things happen. Everyone that has met Tami in the ward she's in, loves her to death! They are super excited about having her join our ward and everyone wants to come to lessons with her. We love teaching her and seeing that light in her eyes. Every lesson the Spirit is so present! Rose is doing awesome and preparing for her baptism that will be this week. We had a great lesson with her about tithing. She was super worried about finding a way to pay it because her and her kids have had some crazy struggles with their finances, but as we talked about it and the importance of it and the blessings of it, the Spirit filled the room and her heart was changed. She committed to pay tithing once she's baptized. She told us that she doesn't want to do anything half-heartedly. Yesterday she was having a really hard time and told us that she went home and prayed really hard and read the Book of Mormon and felt a ton better. She was so happy to see the blessings of the Book of Mormon in her life. She keeps talking about how she wants to be a sheep and follow the Good Shepherd. :) We love her and are so excited for this blessing in her life and in her family. We've also been teaching Esteban. This week we talked to him about the Plan of Salvation and it really made sense to him. He's starting to slowly realize that God's will is more important than his will and that there's a lot of peace that comes from accepting that in your life. The poor guy has had a hard life and being in a wheelchair doesn't make it any easier. Sadly, Lori is moving to the Foothills, so we won't be teaching her anymore. It's kind of a complicated story, but we don't know if she's quite ready to be taught right now anyway, so it was kind of an answer to prayer to know whether or not we should still teach her. Yesterday two Spanish investigators came to church, Antonio and Esteban. They loved it! We hope. We'll have to see how it went for them the next time we meet with them, but we were so grateful that they were able to come and to feel the Spirit that's there in the church. Priesthood is up a few stairs, so all the men had to carry Esteban up the stairs. It was a funny sight, but I hope he was able to feel of their love for him. They just all took him in and loved him. Anyway, that's about it. Oh, except yesterday there was an awesome solar eclipse and we got to see it. Well, have a splendid week! Love, Hermana Anneli Hansen

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Oh my goodness! Hermana Staples and I just got out of a wonderful lesson with Ashley and Ryan (the Ashley that was just baptized last weekend). They told us that they've decided to get married. But they aren't just planning for a future date, they are getting married tomorrow! I don't know if I've ever been happier for someone to get married, except you, Kara. :) They are both doing super well and we're very excited for them, but they don't want anyone else to be there. It's just going to be them and the witnesses and the bishop. Then they'll have a big wedding in October. We're a little bummed that we won't be there tomorrow, but we are very excited for them. Our lesson was definitely guided by the Spirit because it was on temples. They are so excited to go to the temple in a year so that they can be sealed. Ashley is just wonderful and as silly as it sounds, I feel so blessed to see this little family begin. Other than that, the other two recent converts that have been baptized since we've been here in Yuma are also doing well. Bruce is staying strong and active in the church and getting more involved in the young men's program, and the other Ashely is also preparing to go to the temple, but to do baptisms for the dead with the youth in May. At our last lesson we found out that she had felt the spirit really strong at her baptism and her testimony grew so much. I feel so blessed to see how God is working in each of their lives. This week has been wonderful. We've been working with a lot of less actives to be able to help them come back to church. A few of them showed up this week at church. Some people just need to be reminded of their testimony and the importance of the church in their lives. It's also been super hot. Yesterday it was about 107 here. The heat begins, but I'm determined to love it this year because I know it won't last long and pretty soon, I'll really be missing it. And the Lord really truly has been helping me. It's funny because I can tell that it's hot, but it really doesn't bother me like I remember it did last year. The Lord has helped me so much this last week with that and so many other things. Work in Spanish is going well. We're teaching a good amount of people and they have a lot of potential. In one part member family that we are teaching, they told us this week that since they've been meeting with us, they've been seeing many miracles in their family. I think it's really sticking out to the wife who's not a member, and she's seeing how much the Lord is blessing her and is becoming more interested in our message. We also taught a mom, Clara, and her kids how to hold a family home evening. It was super fun and we hope they continue to do it every week. I love these sweet little Hispanics and see so much potential in them. We had a Spanish training this last week and it honestly was exactly what I needed. Not too much of the training was even on Spanish work, but just on missionary work in general. We talked about being successful missionaries from page 10 of Preach my Gospel. A lot of things that it states really hit me. The last few transfers I have seen myself becoming more and more weighed down with the work, but this week helped me to see that as long as I'm doing my best and loving the people, I am successful as a missionary. I love the people here in Yuma and have come to love this crazy little city. This next week is transfers, we'll find out on Sunday what's going on. I have not idea what to plan for. I really don't want to leave yet, but at the same time, I'm open for new adventures, so I'll just have to wait and see what the Lord has in store for me. Well, love you all, Hermana Anneli Hansen

Lean not unto thy own understanding...

It has been a wonderful week! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. It was amazing here. I really felt the Spirit of the Easter season because we are surrounded by people of other faiths that celebrate la Santa Semana (the Holy Week) and I heard a little about it. It kind of helped me to think about what our Savior has done for us throughout the week. I know that He lives! Yesterday we had the chance to go to 3 wards and be flooded with the Spirit of Easter. It was awesome. One of the members in the Spanish branch also gave us all necklaces for Easter. Another member sang Yo Se Que Vive Mi Senor (I know that my redeemer lives) at dinner for us. I love Hispanics!

This weekend we had Ashely's baptism. Ashley the younger, the 17 year old. :) It was an amazing baptism and the Spirit was there so strong. Her less active dad and non-member mom came and we hope they were able to feel it. Hermana Staples was so excited and so she tried to make sure that everything was perfect. And it was nearly perfect, but there's always a few little bumbs, but you just end up laughing about them later. Jeremy, her boyfriend, baptized her, but he was so nervous and before was trying to make sure he remembered the words to the prayer. But he did a great job. And she was just so happy and so ready to be baptized. We're so happy for her and for the support that she has from her friends and from the stake! One of the young women leaders told her that Heavenly Father was having a big party for her in Heaven. :)

The other Ashely has been having some struggles, so she didn't get baptized this week. She is still working on smoking, but she's going strong. We've been visiting with her every morning and studying the scriptures with her and it's been a great blessing. She had one day when she was sent some material that was against the church and it really confused her, but as we were talking to her we felt prompted to ask her to kneel and pray again to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and if this is the path she should take. She did pray then and there and as she did, the Spirit just flooded the room and we could all feel it and she knew that this was right. We feel so blessed to be able to continue to help her progress and grow. She has a lot of opposition, but she'll make it through. I know Heavenly Father is helping her.

We taught many other good lessons. Things are going very well here. We really want to find more people to teach as well. Some of the people we teach aren't really progressing, so we hope to be able to start teaching new people soon. We started teaching a less active man this week named Daryl that really wants to come back to chruch and he's really excited. We also have been teaching a hispanic lady named Clara that is super sweet and I think she has a lot of potential. We'll see.

Recently the Lord has been teaching me a lot about having faith in Him and not worrying. I am such a silly worrier and it can really effect my outlook on my day, but the Lord is so good to me and He shows me that it's not worth it. This morning the scripture from Proverbs 3:5-6 came into my head: Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths. I know the Lord truly cares about each of us so much and He is in charge, so I have nothing to worry about. I also have some wonderful examples around me that are really helping me. One of the Zone Leaders here is always so positive and also living with Hermana Taylor and her abilitiy to not worry about anything is amazing!

The Lord has also been helping me to love people more. I loved the conference talks by Elder Uchtdorf and Holland that talked about how we treat others. I feel like we could all pick things out of there to work on, but I felt some parts of it especially spoke to me. The Lord really is molding and shaping me on this mission and I'm so grateful. I see all my weaknesses, but He sees my potential.

Somehow last week I skipped writing about one of my favorite parts of conference. It was from Elder Evan's talk when he encouraged members to be writing letters to missionaries. Hint, hint. :) Well, that's about all I have time for this week. Hope all is going well at home. I would love to hear from you all and about all your adventures. Have a great week!

love,
Hermana Anneli Hansen

"My Heart is Full"

Oh my goodness! I couldn't be happier with conference. It was so good. All week we taught everyone about it and testified to them about how personal and real the messages are. We talked about how you can really know that President Monson is a prophet as you watch and hear him speak. And it was all so true. As I watched it I felt some very personal messages. There were moments when I was convinced they were only talking to me, but then I'd look over at our investigators and see tears in their eyes or hear them comment on how much they were touched and I knew that what I'd been telling these people all week was completely true. Thomas S. Monson is a prophet called of God and the Lord speaks through Him and the apostles. I was very interested to see the topics they spoke on. It seemed like the huge themes were the importance of the family, overcoming resentment and loving, and the joy of repentance. We'd talked to a few members before conference and they said that they were anxious to see what they would say about politics or the crazy things going on in the world. But they didn't even address that, they seemed to be saying that they answer to all of these problems is to put our focus on our families. I just recently memorized The Family: A Proclamation to the World and it's so true what it says that the disinigration of the family will bring many "calamities", and they seemed to be telling us this last weekend that they way to fix all these "calamities" would be to have family prayer, scripture study, more love and kindness, etc. in the family. During it all I reflected on my own family and how well my own parents did all those things. Of course we weren't perfect, but we did them. And I see now how much that's helped me to stay away from evils of the world. Thanks Mom and Dad! And I'm so happy that I have the best siblings in the world that all have good testimonies and are so loving and kind to me. Love you all! I also thought of sweet little Emily Livingston during Elder Rasband's talk and thought about Jason and Noelle. I hope all is going well with you guys. I miss you and can't wait to meet my new little cousin. It was so comforting to hear him declare how special these little "champions" are. Oh, I just have so much to say about conference. I learned about being a better companion and and better missionary. I loved the missionary choir! And I saw Brittany Romanello. It was just awesome. We had a few investigators show up to watch it, Ashely 1 and 2 and also a lady named Fredina. They were all super touched. Fredina has never been to one of our services before, so it was a little different for her. She only made it to the last session, but she was so touched that she asked how she could see the other sessions. It was amazing to see how each was touched and I look forward to talking to the rest of the people we invited to see how they were also touched.

This upcoming week Ashely 1 and 2 will both be baptized. We are so excited for them. It has definitely been a process and a journey for both of them, but we are so excited for this step they are about to make. This week we had a few setbacks, but I think we got them all figured out and we can't wait for this next week.

We have also been finding a few more new people to teach. We had a good few lessons with a guy that's in a christian rock band at the church he currently goes to. His name is Emio and we're excited to see where it all goes. The first time we taught him there was no doubt that he felt the Spirit. We've also been finding a few more people that speak spanish that we can teach. Yeah! I love the hispanics.

This week we did a lot of service too. We were able to help paint a room and to move a less active man in the spanish branch. I love doing service and it was the first time I could wear pants on a day other than p-day in my mission.

We've also been working on meeting with the members a bunch so that we can get to know the ward better and know what we can better do to help them. I'm amazed by the examples of the members here and the things that I'm learning.

This week we also had interviews with President Howes, our mission president. He is such a sweet man and really has trust in us all. He is so good at lifting us up and helping us want to be better. He gave me a lot of good advice on how to be better and work better with our wards.

Well, a lot of good is happening right now. I feel very blessed. I love my companion and I love living with two other amazing Hermanas. We have so much fun doing the work of the Lord. Happy Easter everyone!

love,
Hermana Anneli Hansen


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It's His good news we bring!

Well, another good week has passed. Time just flies by way too fast here in Arizona. There's so much to tell, I don't even know where to begin. I'll start with transfers. So, like I said last week, I'm staying in a companionship with Hermana Staples and Hermana Saxon got a new companion. You'll never guess who that companion is. It's.......HNA TAYLOR! I was so excited when I heard and even since she's been living with us, it's just been a huge tender mercy to have her close. She's such a good missionary and such a good friend. She's helping me to see more good in the work and to be inspired to be better. I love her! It's been a little crazy with all four of us in the apartment together with all that we have to do, but we have a lot of fun. And it's been wonderful being with Hermana Staples. I love having just two of us and I feel like we've been working together in unity and things have been going really well. I'm super excited for this transfer. I know it's going to be good.

We had this amazing experience with a part member family that we are teaching. We were teaching them last week and they had been having a really stressful day and some crazy things happening with their family. The mom decided to make the thirteen year old son join the lesson. He was reluctant, but did eventually. During the lesson, Hermana Staples let him borrow her scriptures and asked him to read a verse. He did and actually listened and paid attention fairly well to the lesson. Near the end of the lesson he turned to Hermana Staples and made a silly comment. He said (referring to the scriptures) "These are making my hands sweat!", and then he handed them back to her. We just all thought it was a little weird until she told us later that she had wanted so badly for the scriptures to make an impact on him that she had prayed that the scriptures would "burn his hands". That's Hermana Staples for you, but the amazing thing about it was that her prayer was answered-the scriptures did make and impact on him by literally making his hands feel hotter. It was a crazy, but amazing experience to see how much the Lord is aware of our efforts and willing to answer our prayers.

The two Ashely's we are teaching are doing super well. Ashely and Ryan have been so excited about Ashely's baptism. She's been giving up so, so much because she knows and feels that this is right. She's now living the word of wisdom and obeying the law of chastity and keeping the sabbath day holy so well. She's so willing to give up her old life because she wants to follow the Lord and can feel that this is right. I feel so, so blessed to be able to watch the whole process and to just love her so much! I'm so proud of her and Ryan both.

This last week was the last week of the snowbird branch for the year. I didn't get to see Grandma and Grandpa Hansen again before they left, but I hope they enjoyed the rest of the time they had down here. I love that branch so much and we've enjoyed being able to learn and grow from them. This last week every night we had dinners with them and they were so sweet to us. They just loved us and encouraged us in everything we are doing. And yesterday they actually split the branch and so next October they will have two branches of snowbirds because it's just gotten so big.

Yesterday we had another ward council meeting with the ward that chewed us out a few weeks ago. This week was a ton better. We've been really working on finding solutions to the problems we were having with our investigators and doing what's right for them and I hope the ward noticed. Everything seemed to go smoothly, so we're very grateful for that. Lately we've been realizing that we need to build our member trust. Since neither of us has been in the area very long, we want to be able to get to know the members better and show them how much we love them and the Lord and want to help them. This week we plan on visiting a bunch of them and finding ways to serve them and help them in their callings and to be better missionaries. We're excited.

We also taught this cute man named Robert who is actually in the other Hermana's area, so they are now teaching him. But he is so cute! He's a 50 year old rancher who just recently moved here to Yuma and wants to start over. He is such a gentleman and cute little farmboy. He just wants to help others and to follow God. His prayers are awesome! And he's preparing to be baptized soon!

Anyway, that's about all to report for now. Hope you all have a wonderful week. Enjoy General Conference! We can hardly wait!

love,
Hermana Anneli Hansen

Yuma for Life!

Last night we got transfer calls. We've been anticipating all transfer that they would bring another sister down here and make two companionships of sisters. And that's exactly what's going to happen. I'll stay in Yuma and Hermana Staples and I will be companions and Sister Saxon is being inner-zone-transfered and will have a new companion. But we'll all still live together in the same apartment. It will be a party! We also found out that many of the elders here are being transfered too. We know it's the Lord's will, but we've all been able to really learn and grow from each other down here and we are sad to see the zone be changed. But I am excited to be able to work with and learn from other missionaries. I haven't really served around too many missionaries during my mission so far because I've only been in two areas, so it's always good to meet and learn from new people. I am determined to love this transfer and know that the Lord has much in store for us. I'm excited to be able to split the area and to be able to hopefully focus more on the Spanish work and to be able to love these people here more. I want to love them like I loved the people in Tempe. And I want to love Hermana Staples more. She's so wonderful and it will be a wonderful transfer.

This weekend was the Yuma Stake Conference. It was amazing and it was all on teaching others about the gospel, which I, of course, loved! They talked about how we must live the gospel to be able to teach it to others and how we can be better teachers in our families and to those around us. Many of the talks talked about the importance of parents teaching their children the gospel. It hit me how much I have been blessed in life to be able to have been taught the gospel and to have such a loving home where the Spirit could always be felt. Mom and Dad, thank you so much for that!

This week we've been able to teach a bunch and things are going well. There's not too much new information to tell about the people we teach, but we've had some very good lessons with them. I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I have to teach them all. I love them so much. One of the Ashley's that we are teaching is doing super well. She's so excited to be baptized and to one day get married in the temple to her boyfriend, Ryan. She isa little overwhelmed trying to change her life, but she's seeing so much the will of the Lord in her life and how much she can learn and grow as she follows Him. She's so wonderful. We also taught a lesson this week to Melinda and Marcos about the Plan of Salvation. It was such a good lesson. They just understood it all so well and when we read a scripture with them about baptism, Marcos told us "I need to get baptized!" It was amazing!

Well, it's short this week. Sorry about that. Happy first day and spring this week. I hope you all are doing super well.

love you,
Hermana Anneli Hansen

Life Gave Me Lemons, but...

Well, it has been a really good week and and lot of great things have happened, but there were also some very hard things that happened. I know I'm supposed to be here and I know the Lord has a lot for me to learn, but this is turning out to probably be the hardest transfer so far. At the beginning of the transfer I decided that I needed to be more humble. And BOY, the Lord is teaching me humility. But there are a lot of little tender mercies along the way too.

One of the biggest blessings this week is that we had an amazing lesson with Ashley. We talked with her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and as we talked about the Spirit, she told us that every time she meets with us she feels the feelings we've been discribing. She said that everytime she tries to talk during lessons, she feels like she's going to tear up because she feels those feelings so strong. That was an amazing opportunity to testify of the power of the Spirit in our lives and how much it can help us. Also the other Ashley that we are teaching told us at church yesterday that she wants to be baptized. Tonight we plan to talk to her about getting married to her boyfriend because that's one thing she'll have to do before getting baptized. But we're super excited for her!

This last wednesday we had a full, full day. It was a blessed leap day. We had a lesson every single hour and we ended up teaching 7 lessons and going to a baptism with an investigator. That was a huge blessing. As time goes on, I want to get more and more done in each day to make sure that I really can do all I can on my mission. And this was a huge blessing for me. I can't believe all we can get done in one day and how many people we can touch. It's amazing!

We taught a few new people this week. One was a middle-aged man named Mike, who has recently been through a bitter divorce and is really searching for peace from the Lord. We taught him a little bit about the Book of Mormon and listened to his sorrows and testified of the healing power of this wonderful book of scripture. He was so excited to read it and so grateful to us, but because of where he lives, some other elders will be teaching him. He's such a sweet man and we know those elders will teach him and that he's in good hands. We also had some member referrals for some other peopel, a woman named Lisa and a couple, Melinda and Marcos. They both are searching for something new in their lives and we know what we have is what they are looking for.

Our Sunday was probably the hardest day. After a long week I was super tired waking up Sunday. But I was excited for the day and what good things would happen. Then we went to church. We had a ward council meeting with one of our wards and during it the whole ward council attacked our missionary efforts. I never thought I would get attacked by other members, but it happened yesterday. We've been having some sticky situations with some of our investigators and we've been trying to figure out how to handle them tactfully, but the ward when they saw the situations we were in critized every single person we were teaching and all our efforts. We've been trying so hard in this particular ward to get the work going and to help them, but it was hard because they didn't see it at all. They were pretty rash about their comments they made to us and were very critical of us. I don't want to be bitter to this ward and I don't want to hold it against them, but I doesn't mean that it didn't make the day hard. Then we went to one of our other wards and found out that Cherie who was getting baptized this week had decided that she no longer wanted to be baptized and didn't want anything to do with the church anymore. It was a hard day and we all cried our fair share, but we know the Lord has things to teach us, humility being one of them. I would just ask to keep me in your prayers so that I can be strong.

Each day we grow so much as a companionship and the trials and stresses we had this week really have brought us together. I love my companions. They are amazing! They really help lift me up and make me better. Each day we learn so much from each other and grow 10 times more than we did before. One thing we've been talking a lot about as a companionship is "Looking Up", from the talk shared in conference "It's Better to Look Up" It's crazy how many scriptures talk about that. This week alone we have found about 10 and we love to share them with each other. Here are a few: Jacob 3:1 and D&C 6:36-37.

Well, my time is up and I better go. Love you all so much! Have a wonderful week and Happy March!

love,
Hermana Anneli Hansen

Ay! Ay! Ay!

Hello everyone! This has been a crazy week! Probably one of the most up and down weeks of my mission. But the Lord has been strengthening us so much and helping us through it all. Let me tell you about it....

Between this week and last week we have had 5 people that we teach in the hospital. For most of them it has been nothing serious, but it's so ironic that it's all happening at the same time. Wednesday, we got a call from the branch president of the Spanish branch. He told us that Fransisco, whom we had been teaching, was in a coma. That night we were able to go by with the elders in the branch to give him a blessing. It was actually a really cool experience. When we got there the family told us that we couldn't touch him or talk out loud around him because when we did that, he would have seizures. So we were worried about giving him a blessing, but the doctor gave the approval and the elders went ahead with the blessing, but touched him very softly and whispered. But during the blessing, everything was very peaceful. Fransisco didn't move at all and the Spirit was there very strong. It was a sweet blessing of peace. We stopped by a few times later during the week, and he wasn't doing well. Sunday early he passed away. We have been visiting with his wife to help her start coming to church so that she can start feeling peace and find understanding for what happened. We've also been very strengthened in all of it to be okay. In our companionship we've been sad, but we've felt a lot of peace about it all. I've thought a lot about it and I know that it was revelation to stop teaching him because he wasn't in the state to be taught and the Lord knew the end plan and had other plans for us. It's so crazy that all of this has happened!

This week we were also able to visit Cherie. She will be baptized in a few weeks and we are just falling in love with her completely. She is so, so cute and so so ready for the gospel again in her life. Even though she's in her 70s I think we will be good friends even after my mission.

This week we've also been worried about some people we're teaching. We haven't been able to contact them for a while, but we keep praying. But many good things are happening and we know that the Lord won't let us fail. Lori is one of those people we're worried about. We had an incredible lesson with her the other day. We watched the Restoration movie with her and the Spirit was just bouncing off the walls and she couldn't doubt it. She told us that she knew she needed to take a leap of faith and just focus on going to our church instead of the other church she's been attending. And she started talking about how important it was to help her family realize that this is true too. She had her answer and she knew it, but since then we hadn't been able to contact her until last night. When we visited her last night she told us that she'd been going to her other church still. We're so confused as to why or how she totally forgot that answer to pray that she had, but we have hope that she will remember those feelings as we visit with her this week. We'll keep praying and working with her.

This week was Bryce's baptism. It was amazing and the Spirit was so strong. His mom and aunt came and by the end of it, his mom had tears in her eyes and his aunt listened to the talks very well. We're excited to see what will happen with them. Bryce also bore his testimony in front of everyone about how much this has changed his life and how much he knows it's true. It was beautiful!

Well, I'm running out of time, but I just want to say that I know the Lord is blessing us so much this transfer. There are some super hard things happening, but I can see His hand in the work and in our companionship. He is blessing our little trio so much and we are growing so much together and loving it. I know He is guiding all of our lives. Have a wonderful leap year this week!

Con Amor,
Hermana Anneli Hansen

All You Need is Love

Hello wonderful world! It's been a blessed week for sure. Many good things have been happening. We've been just having a jolly old time as a trio and I feel so strongly that the Lord knew that I needed this. I'm learning a lot about love, humility, and listening to the Spirit from their examples and just from the experience in general. Every day we get closer and closer as a companionship and as friends. This week we had a Spanish training in Tempe and as we were there and as I listened to President Howes build us up and help us be better, I knew that the Lord has consistently guided me to where I need to be in each moment of my life, but specifically now, on the mission. Each companion, each missionary, and my mission president, Pres. Howes, has taught me so much and I'm learning and stretching myself so much. The Lord is slowly refining me and making me a better missionary and disciple of Christ. Also, at the Spanish Training I was able to meet President Howes' mother, who is 4'10". I tower over her. :) He's told me so much about her and what a "fireball" she is my whole mission and I was grateful to be able to meet her.

Our Valentine's Day was wonderful. We were able to teach a new couple that night. We had dinner with some members in one of the wards and they invited Terry and Irma over and we had a very good experience with them. The brother in the ward that invited them over gave a very powerful testimony and the spirit was so strong. I was so inspired by these member's examples of missionary work and the importance of sharing their testimonies with those they love. And it was so cool that they sacrificed their Valentine's Day to share the gospel. They're awesome. Also that night we felt impressed to stop by Lori. We dropped in and were able to have a good talk with her about the Book of Mormon. We also gave her a CD of hymns to listen to. We hope she loved it.

This week when we went to get the dinner calender from the Snowbird Branch, we found out that Grandma and Grandpa Hansen had signed up to feed us this Sunday. I wasn't sure if that was okay, but I asked our mission president's wife and she actually gave us permission to go. She said that she knew we'd keep it focused on our purpose as missionaries. And we did. It was so fun! We showed up and found Grandpa Hansen in a cowboy outfit with the boots and the hat and everything. It was so different than the Grandpa Hansen that I'm used to, but it was cute! Oh course Grandma Ellie had spent the whole afternoon cooking for us and the food was wonderful. We talked with them about their missionary efforts that they've been involved in here in Yuma and I was so impressed. They are good little missionaries to their friends and we had a good talk about the importance of missionary work. But, as good missionaries, we kept it short and didn't stay too long.

This week has been a little less busy for lessons, but we still had some really good things happen. We had a lesson with Bryce and he has been doing well. He's super excited to be baptized this weekend. He loves coming to church and feeling the Spirit. He reads the scriptures a lot and is doing very good at that. He told us that he just feels really good lately and knows that this is true. Also, Bryan, Ariel's brother, sat in on the lesson that we had with Bryce this week. He's been showing a lot more interest and being more excited to learn about God. Something has changed for the better in him and we're so excited. We also taught Aubrie, the 10 year old, again. She had written down 11 questions from her reading in the Book of Mormon. We were so impressed and she loves reading the scriptures. This next week we're going to set a date for her to be baptized. This week we also were able to teach a few new people that we're really excited about.

One lady that we have been teaching, Cherie, has decided to get baptized. Her story is kind of a complicated one, but without her knowing, her husband removed their records from the church. He has since passed away and she has felt very prompted to get back into church, but now has to be rebaptized. She's so excited about this decision. She's just so cute. The only way I can think of to discribe her is that she's a "Southern Belle". She grew up in the South and she's is just so proper about everything. It's so hard not to love her and her enthusiasm for the Lord and the gospel.

This week I had some interesting realizations about charity and loving others. Hermana Staples is so cute and has such a strong desire to just love everyone she meets. I echo that desire so much! When we were up in Tempe for the Spanish training this week, I was able to hear about and see some of the people that I'd learned to love so much. I actually got a letter from one of he recent converts there, Luis. As I saw and heard about them, I remembered the deep love the Lord had given me for them. As hard as it was to not be able to stay in Tempe with them and to go back to Yuma, I will never regret that love that I grew to have for them and still have. When I felt that, I realized that I haven't yet let my love for the people of Yuma grow like that yet. The people here are so different, but equally, they are special children of God. This week, since then, I have seen my weakness in loving these people and I'm working on unconditionally putting my heart into loving and helping them. I can already see that love beginning to grow and know that the Lord will help it to continue to grow.

Love you all,
Hermana Hansen

I Love Yuma

I feel like every week as a missionary is just full of surpises and wonderful things to tell. I hope you all aren't getting sick of my enthusiasm for the experiences that I have, but I just can't help it. It's so incredible being a missionary. This week was no exception. The Lord is teaching me a lot here in Yuma. One of these things that He's teaching me is love. I feel like in every class, every sacrament meeting talk, EVERYTHING, He is pushing me to realize how to love people more. Oddly enough, since I've been able to work with english speaking people again, I've realized that I grew so much to love the Hispanics, but I'm back at square one with people of my own race. Silly! I've been praying for that charity and I know the Lord is helping me with it.
This week the mission had a Sister's training. It was incredible! We all met at the Mesa Temple to do initiatories. What a precious experience. As I was there, the Spirit was so strong and all the temple workers that knew we were sisters kept thanking us for our service. As I was doing the initatories, I felt a presence there and knew the people that I was doing the work for were excepting it. Wow! It was also so amazing to see all the sisters, especially the Hermanas. I had the chance to spend a lot of time talking to Hermana Norton and Taylor. Those two lucky ducks that get to be companions and in Tempe! It was so great to get an update about how all the people I love in Tempe are doing. They all seem to be doing well and seeing miracles in their lives. How I miss them! But at the same time, I felt peace that I'm supposed to be in Yuma. As we were driving up, we saw a sign that says "My heart belongs in Yuma." And that's exactly how I felt. I already love it here so much! There's so much to tell about the Sister's training, but probably the best part was that I was able to spend time with Hermana Norton. She's going home in about 3 weeks and it was such a tender mercy to talk with her about how blessed we have been on our missions and how much the Lord must be aware of us. It was also just really special to see how much each of us has grown and to remember how much we grew together as we were companions. I love her so much and am so sad that I probably won't see her again until I come home. But I know the Lord brought us together and that she was someone that needed to be a huge part of my mission. The rest of the sister's training was amazing. We had dinner and a testimony meeting at President and Sister Howes' house and it was amazing to see how wonderful the sisters in our mission are.

Like I said last week, we've been doing a lot of member missionary work lately. I love it so much because it helps me to see how missionary minded our members are. One family that we talked with this week, the Greens, have been really taking the call to do more missionary work seriously. As we talked with them about their efforts and goals, the Spirit was there very strong. Bro. Green told us that he's been praying about how he could better raise the bar and this was the answer to his prayer. On Sunday, Sister Green told us that there was a lady that she's going to ask to take the missionary lessons this week. She was so excited and you could just see the missionary fire in her. It's amazing! We've also been able to talk to other families about these efforts and it's inspiring to see all they are seeking to do to help their neighbors and friends. I'm learning myself about how to be a better member missionary.

And update on the people here in Yuma that we are teaching. We were able to teach Lori this week about the Restoration. She's had a bunch of questions, but was really excited to read the Book of Mormon. We had another lesson planned with her, but she's been having some struggles in her life recently, so we haven't been able to meet with her, but we hope to be able to talk to her again soon. Fransisco is doing awesome. We want him to know more people in the ward and to have more friends, so we're enlisting their help this next week to give him support on overcoming smoking. He's still having health problems and his granddaughter is going to have a baby any day now, so he's been busy. Laura is just so awesome. She has such a love of learning and is so excited to read and study everyday. She is also seeing that the more she is following the Lord, the more He uses her to help others. She's had some amazing experiences to share her testimony with others this last week. And the insightst that she has from those experienceThis week we also had the miracle of being able to start to teach a few new people. One is named Ana Maria. She's just a sweet lady that feels like she's turned her back on God, but has a huge desire to follow Him. She's hungry to learn more about him and has a friend that's a member and a good influence on her. Then we also started teaching a lady named Carmen. She is not really sure that the church she's been attending is what she needs and she really wants to know about what her purpose in life is. And then last night, we stopped by a less active famly and the mom told us that she really wants to get back into church and wants her 9 year old daughter to be baptized, so we're going to teach them too. A lot of good little miracles came our way this week. We're very blessed!

love you all,
Hermana Anneli Hansen

Charity Never Faileth

This is Anneli's zone on their last p-day by the boarder of Mexico.

This is Anneli and her new companion Hermana Saxon.

This is Anneli's mom. I have really been a slacker with this blog sorry. I'm repenting. Anneli has been transferred to Yuma, AZ. She is very excited for a new area and is enjoying it very much. There are 4 wards there and some are English and some Spanish so she is now teaching in English more than before. If you want to write to her please email me at andrealovesgary@yahoo.com. The mission president has asked us not to publish her address on the open internet. Here is her most recent email.


This was a very eventful week. We had a lot of good happen in our area. We started teaching a bunch of new people. It's been an awesome week full of wonderful experiences. We taught an older lady named Judy this week that recently married a widowed member of our snowbird branch. She's not a member, but goes to chruch with her husband often and is very skeptical about religion in general, but at the same time very open. She has a lot of questions! And they are deeper questions, so I've been studying a lot to know how best to answer her questions. We also started teaching another lady that is the girlfriend of a member in one of our english wards. Her name is Lori and she's awesome. She tries very hard to follow God and is going to another church here in Yuma, but lately has been feeling like something has been telling her that the LDS church might be true. So she wants to find out once and for all. We taught her this week and her daughters were also there, so we taught them all and they were very interested in the message and we are going back tonight to keep teaching them. Again, they have a lot of questions.

We also taught Laura. She's doing awesome and already sharing the gospel with her friends at work. It's awesome! Fransisco has been having some health problems, so it's been harder to teach him this week, but we're praying for him. He's excited and working towards baptism still, but we just want to make sure he's healthy first.

One of the girls in one of our wards, Bethany, works in a care center a lot like Bennion Care Center that I worked at a few years ago. She asked us to come by and visit a someone for us. So we stopped by this week. Immediately as we walked in the smells, sounds, etc. all reminded me of my time as a CNA and I was filled with love for the people there. She led us to a woman named Joyce. We got into the room and introduced ourselves to Joyce and then Bethany said "Okay, see you guys later." and ran out. We weren't exactly sure why she wanted us there, but we started talking to Joyce and got to know her a little bit. We found out that she is a member and that she served a mission when she was younger too. We had a good talk with her and then asked if we could share a scripture with her. The first one that came to mind was Mosiah 24:12-15. I read that to her and as I was reading, the words touched me a lot as I thought about her situation. She told us that she wasn't really sure why she was there in the nursing home and what purpose the Lord had for, but as I read those words I was overwhelmed with a love for her and I knew the Lord was aware of her. And I knew that He was aware of me. I can't really explain it, but I was filled with the Spirit. I was kind of a mess, but I just tried to explain to her the love I knew Heavenly Father had for her and how much He did know of her situation. It was a very special experience for me. I realized through that and other experiences just how much the Lord takes care of us in our lives. He knows what we're going through and He will help us with our burdens and make our lives joyful. I think the Lord is teaching me how to love here. Every lesson in church seems to be screaming that to me and through all the experiences, I see that need to love the people here.

So our zone went to Mexico last week. Well, not really, but we were about as close as we could get, probably within 20 feet. It was awesome! Here's some pictures that we took.

We've also been trying to focus more on member work in our mission recently, so we're talking to the families in our wards about what they can do to be better missionaries themselves. It's been amazing to see that as we've been talking to the members, they all have people that they have been wanting to share the gospel, but don't know what to do next. We've been encouraging them to invite these friends and neighbors themselves to activities in their home or at the church where they can begin to feel the spirit and then when they feel it's right to invite them to church or to firesides, etc. These things are really simple, but we've seen that as by small and simple things, members can really open the door to their friends to the gospel.

This week I got a lot of letters from the Parks 3rd Ward Primary. They were awesome! Thanks so much! One thing that I loved was that all of the little girls told me that they want to go on missions one day. That made me excited. Well, Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day everyone. Go celebrate black pride and hug a black person. They are so awesome!