He has been mindful of us

Hey everyone,

"Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life" (3 Nephi 5:13).

Today is my last day here in Perm. Time flies by. I have loved my mission. I have grown to love, with all my heart, Russia and her people. I have come to know my Savior on a much deeper level. I have strengthened my relationship with my Father in Heaven. I have come to appreciate my family more than ever before. This is the work of the Lord. He lives! He came and did what He said He would do. He leads His Church today. He will come again.

Sometimes I wonder if I have done enough...probably not. However, I am forever grateful for the opportunity my Heavenly Father has given me to try. He has given me so much. I could give Him my entire life and still be an unprofitable servant - I'm going to give Him my life anyway.

"...For this is my life and my light, my joy and my salvation, and my redemption from everlasting wo. Yea, blessed is the name of my God, who has been mindful of this people, who are a branch of the tree of Israel, and has been lost from its body in a strange land; yea, I say, blessed be the name of God, who has been mindful of us, wanderers in a strange land" (Alma 26:36).

The work will go forth.

Thank you for all that you have done in my behalf. Thank you for your support, encouragement, and prayers.
I love you! See you soon. xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Love always,
Sister Hansen

Um...

Hey everyone.
Just want to say thank you for the emails I got this week. Oh, I love you all so much. I hope everyone had an incredible Easter. I did! Church was incredible. So many people came! and...I got 3 painted eggs!!!!! :) Am I the only person who hadn't heard of when Mary Magdalene took a boiled egg to the King and it miraculously turned red in front of him, which convinced him to listen to her testify of the risen Lord? I don't think I had ever heard that before. The Russians claim it happened and that is where the tradition to dye eggs came from. As for the bunny - yeah that's just weird. They don't have one of those in Russia.
I almost died when I saw my little nephews in their Easter clothes...way too precious. And Ellie's dress is absolutely adorable. Seriously. It's a good thing I'm not there right now, because I would just eat them.

As for me, not much happened this week. It was a good week. We were blessed in that not EVERYONE stood us up on our meetings or cancelled.
It was actually a pretty good percentage of people who turned out. :) The Lord is so good to us. I love this work and am sooooooooo happy to be here. I really can't imagine anything better. Hoorah for Israel! have a great week everyone! xoxoxoxoxoxo
love always,
Sister hansen

Another Great Week Has Gone By

Hey everyone!
It sounds like life is continuing on at a rapid pace. I'm glad to hear that things are going pretty well. Sounds like everyone is a little busy and a little stressed. Don't forget to stop every now and then and think of Him.
Here, things have been going pretty well also. President and Sister Allcott came this week for a couple of days to do Leadership training with us (for trainers, new missionaries, and zone leaders). It was fun. It was exactly what I needed at just the right time. It has blessed my companionship tremendously. It gave Sister Wright the confidence she needed; it gave me and renewal I needed; and now, our teaching has improved and our drive has increased.
Not much has changed as far as investigators go. Vladimir drank on saturday, so we are still working with him on that. Cergei still won't set a baptismal date, but we met with him twice last week and he came to church. He wrote a list of what he likes and dislikes about the church and will bring that to our meeting with him on tuesday. So, we will have a list of his concerns right in front of us and hopefully we will be able to hear the Spirit tell us exactly what he needs to hear to overcome those. Anton, is still scared to talk to his mother to ask for permission to get baptised. We don't really know how to help him overcome that. He doesn't really accept any commitments we give him regarding his relationship with her. He finished the Book of Mormon and prayed about it. He believes it is true, but he also thinks that his life will be better if he just waits until he is 18 to get baptized. So, that's where we are with him. Dima didn't come to church after all, he took his father to the hospital on sunday morning. We have a meeting set up with him on tuesday, and so we will set another baptismal date with him. Kristina still won't answer our phone calls - it's just not her time right now. We do have two meetings with potential investigators tonight and a busy week scheduled. So, the future is bright and the Lord's work continues to roll forth.
I am so happy to be here and have the opportunity to know these people and to help the Lord do His work. I love this work with all my heart. I love my Savior, I love my companion, I love Perm. I know that Christ lives and I know that this is His one and only church. I know from experience, that the Atonement is true healing power and the only way to return to our Heavenly Father. I want these incredible Russian people to know of that as well. I want to be with them in the kingdom of God. That is why I am here and that is why I am His missionary. I can't believe how fast my little niece and nephew are growing. I can't believe that everyone is married, pregnant, or leaving on missions. Life is so great isn't it?! It's pretty short though. Gotta live in the moment!

I love you all so muchK..I gotta go. i want you all to know that I love you sooooo much. Have a great week! Remember who you are!
xoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxo
love always,
Sister Hansen

No Letter This Week

Sister Hansen didn't have time to write this week, sorry.

April Showers

Hi everyone,

yes, April is already here and it is still snowing, but the snow is melting and there are muddy puddles everywhere. As I sit here in the Post office (where we occasionally do Internet), I can see the cars splashing mud up onto the snowy banks along the side of the road and I am laughing because in the background I hear some crazy babooshka who has come in and is yelling at the poor postal workers. They are always grumpy so I don't feel toooo bad for them. Haha I love Russia with all my heart.

As for this past week, not much new happened. We taught, walked, ran, baked, cleaned, laughed, prayed, studied, and taught some more. But...not much new. It was all rather amazing, nevertheless. We have some new missionaries in our zone and Sister Hakes and Sister Spjute
went home last week (look them up...I want to live with them - but we don't have housing for fall - someone wanna look into that?) thanks.

We also found out that we will be watching conference this next weekend!!!!!! Yay!!!! I'm so excited!!!!!! We committed a member in our area to come and pray about our living prophet. He believes Joseph Smith was a prophet but has concerns regarding the prophets right now. Hopefully he comes with an open heart to get an answer.

Do you think you could help me with a question I was asked this week? I understand it, but it would be nice to have quotes from general authorities or something to help prove my point. The question is regarding the Law of Tithing and what is written in Doctrine and Covenants 119 (specifically concerning the words 'interest' and 'surplus'). The Gospel Principles says that the first presidency understands that as 'salary', but that wasn't good enough for this person - he didn't want how they understood it, but what God said - because it says the law in 119 is eternal. If you find any concrete places where the Lord/prophet says 10% of your salary (he knows how Abraham paid 10% of all he had, etc...but he wants something that says 'salary'.), could you send those to me in your next week's email?

That would really help A LOT. It was a very interesting meeting. It is sad how sometimes we hold on to the smallest things because we don't really want to live the commandments - we find any excuse possible. Whether that be mistakes of other people and we get offended, or mistakes in the translation of the scriptures, or modern day views on ancient laws, or anything really, I've heard it all. But it all comes down to our pride and laziness - that is the only thing that keeps us from keeping the commandments and obtaining all the available blessings from God. We almost keep all the commandments and we will almost receive salvation. I know President Monson is a prophet of God. And I know obedience is the first law of heaven.

We unfortunately didn't meet with Sergei and Vladimir this past week - we talked to them every day, but they were WAY too packed with work. Came to church though. :) Anyway, our other investigators are all slowly but surely progressing little by little, and hopefully we will be able to help them speed that progression up. Please pray for Dima. He has a baptism date for April 23rd and he needs all the help he can get. I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!

xoxoxoxoxoxxoxo
love always,
Sister Hansen

March 28th - FINALLY! Pictures!

Hey everyone!!!!!!!!!!

Today is officially the first day of the transfer and Sister Wright and I didn't get transferred! I am so excited that I get to serve here in Bolatovo some more. I love this area with all my heart. I am also really glad that I will get to serve with Sister Wright once more. I love her dearly and I feel like we are both learning so much.

This past transfer went by way too fast and I know that we need more time together. I have seen so many little and big miracles. We have been trying really hard to work with the members and we have spent many hours doing service and we were blessed this past week with three referrals! Two of those referrals became new investigators and one of them has a baptismal date. The Lord is so good to us. These people are incredible and these members are some of the best people I have ever met in my life. I love them so much. We had a picnic with the branch on Saturday and Sergei came. It was good for him to make a few more friends. He mentioned that his fiance doesn't like him being away from home so much but she doesn't want to come with him and she doesn't want us to come to their home. He gave us his address however, so hopefully soon, we can start meeting at his house and meet his fiance. That is what is keeping him down. He opened up a lot to us this week on our meeting, more than ever before, and so hopefully we will now be able to truly help him overcome his doubts.

Vladimir also opened up to us more and has the desire to make the necessary changes in his life in order to be baptized. We pray that his desire will increase to give him the motivation to actually make those changes. He is progressing. He now prays regularly and yesterday he went to Priesthood for the first time (due to daylight savings, we had the 3rd hour, first).

I feel like I have really been humbled lately. There is still so much I need to learn. I am so grateful to have these experiences and opportunities. This truly is the work of the Lord.

I hope you all enjoy the pictures. Sorry, the letter is short and somewhat scattered, but the pictures take time. Count your blessings.

I love you all soooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xoxoxoxoxo Have a great week!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
love always,
Sister Hansen

Sister Tsuprova and I

Sister Mezinets, Karpeshenko, and I.

All of us at President Abagjan's house
when the Nehrings were still here. He made us Shishkabobs!
sooooooooooo tasty! However, Sister Whiting is a vegetarian. :)

Vladimir's family (Ludmila, kristina, Vladimir, and Danil) at
Ludmila's birthday dinner.

On the train

Our VISA trip

Sister Whiting and I in our pjs.

The day dawn has broke and the snow is melting!

Hello my dears!

So...how is everyone doing? It's Spring Break already! thaaat's weird. Hopefully you get a lot accomplished and also get to relax and actually take a break. There are no breaks here...except today we are going to try to do something fun with Sister Hakes and Sister Harrison. Sister Hakes only has 2 more Preparation days and she wanted to do something with us - there's not really much we can do right now, so we'll probably just go try out a new restaurant. Sort of a break, right?

Things here are warming up, I am now just wearing my fall coat...goodbye Russian winter. And the streets are starting to get pretty muddy. There is still plenty of ice though, so not full blown
spring whether yet. We had an incredible week with many miracles and I feel like we didn't do very much different. The Lord just placed miracles in our hands, big and small. Unfortunately, Сергей (Sergei) wasn't ready on Saturday to be baptized and he is hesitant to make another baptismal date. This is the 2nd one he has missed since I have been here in Perm. That's pretty hard on his faith and his self-esteem, but this time we are asking him to pick the date with prayer. It is going to be his goal and hopefully one that he can achieve. He has been coming to church regularly and we talk to him every day. He is reading and praying, but feels as though he hasn't got an answer yet. He has pushed back his wedding as well - now he will be getting married in June, which isn't helping his spiritual growth. Before, when we set a baptismal date with him, we told him to move out or get married. So, he chose to get married, but in the meantime is still living with his fiance. Anyway, we are working with him and I know that someday he will come into the Fold.

This past week, Patriarch Rogers came to Perm and so many members were able to receive their Patriarchal Blessings. He also had a meeting with us and he gave a fireside. It was such a great experience talking to him. I learned so much and got some answers to many of my questions. The fireside was very good as well. We had 2 new members come, one of whom is inactive. I was so happy!

Yesterday we also had some new faces at church. There were 10 women in Relief Society. It was a miracle. Two of those were investigators. And the lesson was very good. This little branch is slowly picking itself up. We will be having a ward picnic this next Saturday and so that should help the friendship amidst the ward members.

We had people stopping us on the street this week asking for Books of Mormon and we were blessed with one new investigator, Anton, who came to church yesterday. He is searching for answers right now and actually approached us on the bus. We will be meeting with him again tonight.

I also would like to mention that I am learning so much from my study of the Book of Mormon looking specifically for references to the Atonement. I feel as though I am growing to know my Savior on a deeper level. I am grateful for the opportunity to study it as a mission and I know that is playing a huge part in the success our mission is seeing right now. There are miracles happening among us.

I know that this is the Lord's one and only true church on the earth. God cannot contradict himself, which means there should be only one church ("One Lord, one faith, one baptism" - Eph.4:5). I know that the truth is restored and it all exists in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I'm doing my best to help others come to Christ in the fullest way possible. This is His church. Of that, I am certain, for the Lord has told me. I hope you all have a great week and remember Him at all times. I love you so much. I am blessed beyond measure with such a great family. Take care! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
love always,
Sister Hansen