4 Months in a Hospital

Coucou ! 

Wow! What a week! Another one down for the books! I also may or may not have had a pretty major blonde moment too. 😳 

Sadly, we started this week off at a funeral. Soeur Beckwith and I never knew the lady we where celebrating, but she seemed to have had an amazing life! All the testimonies shared about her were just beautiful and we could tell that she really made an impact on many. I am so thankful for the Plan of Salvation and how we are able to be with our families forever. From experiencing loss first hand, I know that those who leave us may be gone physically, but are never far from us spiritually. I have truly felt the presence of both my grandmother and my aunt as my personal ministering angels; taking every step I take and walking alongside me as I press forward in missionary work. Time is such a precious thing, soak up every moment!!

But...make sure you keep an awareness in every moment, or else you are going to lose your keys! Yup, I lost our house keys.... at the funeral. Blonde moment #1 for the mission, and I know they are far from over! Let's start at the beginning.... 😂 

Soeur Beckwith and I live across the street from the church building, so it's literally a hop, skip, and a jump away! 😂 Every day we leave the apartment I put the keys in the front pocket of my bag, but this time on our way over to the funeral I put them in a different pocket without thinking about it. We get to the church, sit down, and enjoy a beautiful service. We leave and go back to the apartment only to realize as soon as we get to the door of our building that we didn't have the keys - or so we thought. I honestly went into a bit of a panic. Our key ring had the keys to our apartment, the church, the other missionaries' apartment, and some other important keys. 😳 

Uh oh! Soeur Beckwith looks at me and says, "Don't worry they are probably just at the church." We then venture back over to the church to look around. We go into the gym, say a little prayer, and begin our hunt. We ran into Melissa, the bishop's daughter who is truly hilarious, simply herself, and a wonderful friend to the missionaries, who immediately helps us. We looked out on the lawn, in the gym, in several rooms, and in the street. Nothing! This whole time Melissa is saying, "I bet it's in your bag," but we were sure we had emptied it three times already! We see the Elders come out of one of the rooms and tell them what's going on. They give us our spare apartment key, and we run home to grab a couple things for a lesson we had to get to pretty quickly. We get to our apartment door and the key doesn't work! As we ran back over to the church to give the key back to the Elders, I may or may not have been holding back tears! We get to the church, hand the keys to the Elders, and Melissa is giving us these eyes that definitely say to check the bag again. We turn to leave, and at that moment I put my hand in the very pocket the keys where in - NO WAY! And of course, I found the keys in front of everyone, and yes, Melissa was even justified with an "I told you so" moment. 😂 The Elders have wasted no time giving me a hard time about it. Me, I'm choosing to see it as a moment that was a huge answer to prayer - even though we did have them the whole time, and it was in truth a total blonde moment!! 

Happy Valentines Day
!  

Soeur Beckwith and I truly enjoyed celebrating my first Saint- Valentine in France! We went all out with our Valentines dinner! We decided to make ourselves some chocolate strawberries and a quiche! It was so good! We also wrote each other cute little Valentine notes! 💕  To celebrate the day with the city, we bought a bunch of roses to give to people in Le parc du Thabor (a super pretty park here in Rennes).  It was so much fun! Some people were really touched and had the biggest smiles, while others were pretty confused by the gesture. 😂 But for us, we had the best time sharing flowers with random strangers, and hopefully spreading joy around the city.

This week, I also had my very first experience in a French hospital. It was an experience for sure, and I was even there on the day I celebrated 4 months of being a missionary! But don't worry, I wasn't there for me.😉 Our sweet friend's mother was in the hospital, so Soeur Beckwith and I went over with her to sing some cantiques (hymns) and visit with her. For those of you who don't know, last summer before leaving on my mission I worked as a CNA in a hospital on the night shift, so being able to go to a French hospital was an exciting experience for me. It was definitely very different than our American hospitals. I was so glad we were able to be there with our friend and visit with her mother. She told some amazing stories, loved our songs, and it was so sweet and endearing to watch our friend interact with her mother. Yet another testimony to me about the importance of family. Some of the moments I have enjoyed the most on my mission so far are the those where I have had the opportunity to just sit and talk with people,  and get to know them. Spending time with those you care about is just invaluable! 

Spiritual Thought:

This week my spiritual thought is about true joy! One scripture that really stands out to me comes from the Book of Mormon in Alma.  

"Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness." (Alma 27:18) 

This week my invitation to you all is to be humble seekers of happiness because through doing just that is where we can find the most joy! 

Thank you for hanging in with me through my adventures and blonde moments this week! France is amazing and missionary work is incredible! Next week I will be updating you all from a new area of France as I will be getting transferred this week, but although I do know where my next area is, I am going to leave you all in suspense of where that could be for now. 😉  (Don't worry, it's a good one!) 

À bientôt !  -Soeur Hansen

Anotha One!!

Coucou ! J'espère que vous allez bien ! (Hello!  I hope you all are doing well!)

This week was a whirlwind! Let's see if I can share it all in a reasonably lengthed blog post. 😉 

Starting off the Week Strong: Well, I experienced my first French Manifestation! For the past couple weeks, there have been numerous grèves and manifestations (insane protests) in the République, which is the center of town. My companion and I aren't too sure on why they are happening, as we are counseled to stay out of politics as missionaries, but what we do know is that they have put a huge dampener on the public transport and our ability to street contact! Most of the time when the manifestations are happening, we avoid the town center and limit street contacting to the area around our apartment. However, Tuesday we didn't know there was a manifestation happening until we where on the bus. I was casually looking out the window until Soeur Beckwith leaned over to me and said, "You are about to experience your first manifestation." Oh no! That was when I realized the bus was going to the stop at the Gare instead of in the town center. We walked from the Gare to the center of town, but made sure to remain far enough away so we wouldn't be caught in the middle of it all. It was crazy! There were rows of police cars, lines of police, smoke bombs radiating from various areas, and just a lot of angry people doing what angry people do! Soeur Beckwith and I stopped to watch from a far in awe for a moment then quickly continued on with the work, safely away from the chaos. 

Later that evening, we had another lesson in another language again! This time it was in Swahili! We have a friend we have been teaching who is from Rwanda who doesn't speak much French, but speaks Swahili! We found some Elders in Tanzania who where able to do a lesson with us via FaceTime and do the translations for us. It was so so cool, and it was amazing to see our friend open up about her beliefs because she could finally express herself freely without language limitations! I am so thankful that there are missionaries all around the world, because those Elders who helped us were a huge answer to prayer! 

This week we also had another in-person district council! Soeur Beckwith and I where in charge of the formation this time and we talked about "Love, Share, Invite" which is a way for members of the church to participate in missionary efforts alongside the full-time missionaries. It was amazing, and honestly, I'm pretty sure I learned more from others in the district than they probably did from Soeur Beckwith and I. I loved hearing about how each missionary connects with members differently, and their ideas of how to strengthen their relationship with the ward. I learned that the details matter, and sometimes the smallest things that maybe we might feel are insignificant, can actually mean a lot to those we serve. 

At the end we all went to the local boulangerie for lunch and then, once again performed the Paris France Mission Tradition... the Flan suck! That is something that will never get old and might be a new hidden talent for when I get back to the states haha! 

WE ALSO HAD ANOTHER BAPTISM! This time my hair isn't gray! 😂 It was the baptism for our friend Michelle, who if you remember the story, was actually invited to be baptized by Stéphane, our friend we met on the bus who just barely got baptized! It was so beautiful! Michelle was so excited and was all smiles that day! She kept asking everyone for pictures! We asked her how she felt when she came out of the font and she just said happy. Short and simple, but I think that is the perfect summary of how a baptism should feel: Happy! At the end of the baptism we all had some good 'ol American chocolate chip cookies! Soeur Beckwith and I made some the night before to bring, and they where a huge hit! Shout out to my Uncle Cory for the recipe! We had tons of requests for the recipe, and each time we couldn't help but tease them and say it is a family secret! 😉 It was so cute, before the baptism one of the kids that came saw the cookies in the kitchen and was so excited, and kept telling everyone there where American cookies! Plus, I have to mention, the sun was out! So, indeed it was an amazing, beautiful day all around! 

Overall it was a great week, one that was definitely all over the place ranging from manifestations, to Swahili lessons, and of course a baptism as the icing on the cake, and I wouldn't have it any other way! I am really beginning to truly love the people and the culture here in France and every day I find more and more to be thankful for. 

This week for my Pensée Spirituel, I wanted to talk about love! Especially since today is Saint- Valentine! I love this scripture from the bible: 

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love." 

Ephesians 3:17

Christ is the essence of love, He is the best and ultimate example of love! In everything we do, we should try and love the way Jesus did. Everything He did was done through love. He taught, served, healed, comforted, and simply spoke with pure love. If we ground ourselves in Jesus Christ, we will be rooted in Him and His love. This week, in the spirit of Saint-Valentine, love like Christ our Savior did in all you do! 

Je vous aime ! À bientôt !

-Soeur Hansen 

Camping in the Great Indoors!

Bonjour à tous ! 

Ça fait une autre semaine, et c'était pas le plus vitesse mais c'était toujours bon ! (Another week has come and gone, it was not the fastest week, but as always, was a good week!)

So much has happened, and as always, there is so much to share, but never enough time or space to share it all, so now the task of narrowing it down!  

This week we had our Zone Conference! En brief, the entire mission is broken up into different zones, then in each zone there are a certain number of missionaries placed in specific areas within those zones. About every 6 weeks we have transfers, where missionaries are assigned to different zones or areas in the mission. So, about every month and a half or so I have the possibility of moving to a different part of France, Belgium, or Luxembourg, all dependent on where my Mission President thinks I should be. Once a transfer, a Zone Conference is held where the Mission President and his wife take time to visit each zone, and all missionaries gather in one spot for training, personal meetings with the Mission President, and to just get together with all the missionaries in our zone. It's super fun! 

During this Zone Conference my companion and I hosted 4 other sister missionaries for one night in our apartment. That is 6 sisters in one tiny 2 person apartment! What a party! In order to make sure that everyone had a place to sleep, Soeur Beckwith and I decided to give the 4 other sisters our room, because we have bunk beds, and we drug our mattresses out into our kitchen for the night. (Normally our mattresses are stacked on top of another mattress, so everyone still had a bed.) So, Soeur Beckwith and I camped in the great indoors of our kitchen! I can honestly say it was one of our most fun moments together! 😂 We both love the outdoors so as we laid there, we tried to imagine we where actually camping as we listened to the sound of nature sweeping in through the window from outside and looking at the lights we'd hung around the room, imagining they were stars! We actually had a pretty good ambiance going, until our water heater turned on and brought us back to reality. 😂 

The next morning we got up and went on about a 5 mile run together, (yes, I ran 5 miles without stopping - you can hold your applause) then got ready and enjoyed our Zone Conference with everyone. It  was such a great experience, and of course President Hansen took a lot of photos and some pretty fun videos of us.  Most importantly, he shared some amazing spiritual messages with us about our work as missionaries. I left that conference feeling so inspired and motivated! 

I also did my first translation this week! We got a text from one of the sisters I was in the MTC with who is serving in Cyprus and was teaching someone who spoke French and asked if we could help with translations for them. Of course we said yes! It was such a cool experience! It was definitely easier to translate from English to French than it was from French to English, just because of the vocabulary usage, and trying to make sure we fully conveyed everything everyone wanted to say. It was also a huge test for my memory skills, as both the friend and the sisters would express really long thoughts and ideas without pauses, so we had to try and remember it all! We almost had to take notes to remember everything! In the end it turned out really good! Their French friend was super impressed by our French, and the sisters serving in Cyprus thought it was super cool we could all teach together! They said they have a couple other friends who speak French, so they will be probably be calling us again. So exciting! It definitely stretched my language skills a bit, but it's something I would absolutely do again! 

It has been so incredible to see the influences of missionary work all over the world! Even though I am serving in France, I don't only work with missionaries serving in France! So far, I've had the awesome opportunity to work with missionaries in the US, Cyprus, Italy, and Sweden, along with missionaries who speak many other languages like Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Chinese! I may be called to a French speaking mission, but that isn't the only language I am teaching in! 

Overall this has been a great week! Lots of awesome lessons and many interesting contacts. Meeting so many new people just emphasizes how unique and individual we all are. This week I have had people get so excited to talk to us, while others just point at us and laugh. It's sometimes hard in the moment, but it is really interesting to see the reactions of people when we ask them about their religious beliefs. It has led to some interesting conversations and I am able to meet people I otherwise would never have met of I didn't choose to serve a mission and come to France. No matter the interaction or the reaction, I am happy to be in France learning from the people, the culture, experiencing life over seas, and most importantly sharing the love of Jesus Christ with as many people as I can! 

Spiritual Thought

This week my spiritual thought comes from the Book of Mormon, with a focus on Christ and His love for each of us. 

"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." -Mosiah 14:5

I love this scripture so much! Christ was wounded for us, so that we wouldn't have to be wounded in the same way. Through His wounds, and His stripes we are healed. It is only through Him that we are healed. He faced mockery and was chastised by others so that we wouldn't have to be in the same way. The most perfect man to walk the Earth was judged, condemned, and ridiculed for us so we wouldn't have to be. He did the unbearable because He loves us. It is through the love of Jesus Christ and His grand sacrifice for us that we are healed. This week remember that Christ knows you: He knows you personally and He knows exactly how you feel. He loves you more than you can ever know and He will heal you! ❤️

Je vous aime! À Bientôt! - Soeur Hansen

Portuguese and A Baptism!

Bonjour à tous !

Cette semaine est passée très vite ! C'était rempli avec beacoup des choses, mais C'était très bien ! (This week has passed very quickly, has been filled with many experiences and has been very good!)

This week was probably the busiest week I have had on my mission so far! We taught about 3 lessons every day - one lesson we conducted in two different languages, we had a few meetings, we did exchanges, and we also had to plan and attend a baptism this week! Yes! The man from the bus that we met my first week in Rennes got baptized on Saturday! How amazing is that! This week was decorated super busy but it was a really good week!  

So, here we go!

It is crazy how many languages you are exposed to as a missionary, and how many more languages you have to try and teach in! I may be called to France speaking French, but this week we taught a lesson in Portuguese with the aid of the Portuguese speaking Elders, and are now trying to teach a lesson to someone who speaks Swahili and Kikamba. Pretty cool! Our lesson this week with the Portuguese speaking Elders was actually so cool! We have a member who was recently baptized and has been preparing to receive the Priesthood.  As part of his preparation we needed to teach him a lesson about what the Priesthood is, the responsibilities and duties of the holder, and how it is used. Attending our lesson were my companion and I speaking French, the Elders in our mission who speak Portuguese, a member from our ward who could help explain it better, and our new convert. That was six people for one lesson! It was funny because we would say a word in French and he wouldn't understand, so the Elders would then say it in Portuguese, and he would say "oh ya ya, I understand!" 😂 Even though we had a couple languages going on all at once, it turned out amazing! It had to have been one of my favorite lessons so far. It really just goes to show that the Holy Ghost is the ultimate teacher! The most important language we really have to be able to understand is that of the Holy Ghost, and the importance of listening to that still small voice. 

And the moment you have all been waiting for.... I HAD MY FIRST BAPTISM!! And man do I have a few gray hairs from the experience! 😂 We had the baptism for the ami I met on the bus my first week here, just before Christmas! It was amazing! Soeur Beckwith and I got to the church at about mid morning to begin cleaning out the font and getting things ready. A few hours into preparing, and about an hour before the baptism: we had printed the programs, had everything set up, and started filling the font when we got the text from our ami that he would be an hour late because of the train he was taking. An hour late to his own baptism! Soeur Beckwith and I looked at each other not totally sure what to do. The font took about an hour to fill so we stopped filling it so the water wouldn't be too cold, and started trying to figure out every solution we could to get him there on time. We decided to call the brother from the ward who would be performing the ordinance to update him on the situation, only to find out that he had forgotten about the baptism! OH NO! While on the phone we heard the moment he realized what he had forgotten! It was actually kinda funny. Silence...and then a huge gasp and OH LA LA! He then told us he would be at the church in five minutes. 😂

Soeur Beckwith and I were still holding our breath, when soon after we got a call from our ami that he would be making it on time after all.  In the end, we still started the baptism about 50 minutes past the original time. 😂 While we waited for the brother doing the ordinance to arrive, and for our ami to arrive we decided to try and figure out some technical issues for some of the videos we wanted to play and we resumed filling the font. (Many many prayers were said during this time: that we would have enough time to fill the font, that everyone would be there in time, pretty much that everything would work out!)  In the end everyone made it on time, the technical issues were resolved, and the font was filled!  Most importantly, the baptism was beautiful and tears were definitely shed! 

And now for the confirmation! Our ward starts at 9:30 am and the confirmation was planned for the first part of the meeting. Soeur Beckwith and I arrived at the church 20 minutes before the meeting started and we got a text that our ami would be late... again... because of the train... again!  He said he would be about an hour late unless someone could pick him up from the Garre (train station). Soeur Beckwith and I didn't know what to do. At this point it was only about 10 minutes before the meeting started, and through the window we saw one of the young adults, Matthieu, getting out of his car and we knew we had to ask him! We found Matthieu sitting in his chair, having barely opened his scriptures and preparing to start the meeting. We went up to him and asked for his help. Without hesitation he said he would do it. WHAT AN ANSWER! He toute suite left and went to pick up our ami from the Garre. As he drove away from the church we frantically texted each of them the other's number so they could find each other at the station. Soeur Beckwith and I then made our way into the chapel and took our seats, again praying all would be well. Just before the sacrament, we see our ami and Matthieu slip in. I cannot describe how big the sigh of relief that Soeur Beckwith and I let out was, and the incredible relief we felt after such a chaotic weekend!  He was confirmed, and all was well! I wish I could share every other detail from the week, but that would be a bit much to read. 😂 

So I leave you with a Spiritual Thought:

This week, in the midst of the craziness, and my now gray hairs, one scripture kept coming to mind:

 

"Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." (D&C 123: 17)

The events from this week really tested the validity of this scripture. We can only do so much ourselves, then we have to let God prevail with the rest. However, with the things we can do, we must do so cheerfully. When we do so cheerfully we are better able to stand still with the comfort and assurance in knowing that the rest is up to God, and that all will happen according to His will. We must do what we can cheerfully and when we have done all we can, we must stand back and let God take care of the rest.

 

Love you all so much! Gros bisous ! 

À bientôt ! - Soeur Hansen