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!