Appliances

Salut à tous !

Okay this past P-day was definitely one for the books! I went to Disneyland! We aren't allowed to go into the park, but we can stay within the village and it was still so incredibly magical! 🤣 We walked around the gardens and shops, taking pictures and enjoying the Disney music playing in the background. It was so amazing! The last time I was at Disneyland was when I was six with my grandparents! Being there on Monday definitely brought back some good memories. 😊  

Fun Fact I realized this week - I know most if the translators who work for the Church translating English to French during General Conference! A lot of them are in either my ward or my stake. I even know the French voice for President Nelson's translator!  Pretty cool - if I do say so myself! 😂

Well, folks, it finally happened! We got a new fridge and washing machine! They are actually really nice too! For the past two weeks we have been going to another missionary apartment to do laundry and praying that our fridge fan wouldn't go out for good! It would go on and off and was just super loud - it was a miracle that it lasted as long as it did! It was funny though, because the night before they were coming to fix it, I had suggested we take everything out and let it defrost so it would be ready in the morning...we did not do that. The next day came and we were all in our studies when we unexpectedly got a call from the delivery people that they would be here in 2 minutes! We all scrambled out of our offices to unpack the fridge, turn off the water to the washing machine, and pull everything out from the wall. We got the fridge out just fine, but the washing machine was the problem child. 

We could only pull it out à little from the wall because there was a hose still attached in the back. We had only begun our attempt to unscrew the hose when water started spurting out! We seriously thought we where going to flood our apartment! We then grabbed bowls to put under it as we frantically tried to find where to turn off the water! Time was seriously running out and we where panicking a bit. We tried calling the senior couple who are in charge of the mission housing stuff, but no answer. So, we started going through the bottom cupboards to see if we could find where the hose attached, hoping to be able to turn it off. I started just throwing pots and pans out of the cupboard and literally crawling into it to try and find the attachment! 😂 

Voila, we found it and I began twisting with all my might! It was on there super tight! I was able to loosen it à bit, but my hands were hurting and I couldn't twist anymore, so Soeur Thurgood gave it à try and she was able to loosen it... until her hands started hurting too. 😂 I then crawled back under and was able to twist it the rest of the way and shut the water off! Success! We unhooked everything from the wall and Soeur Thurgood and I moved the washer out into another room. But our job wasn't over... to our extreme disgust there was quite a bit of black mold that had formed under the washer. 🤢 We grabbed all the cleaning products we could think of (including bleach) and began scrubbing away at the floor. It was DISGUSTING! But hey, now we know it's clean! 

 Soeur Thurgood and I then looked at the time and raced down stairs to meet the delivery people! We got there right as they pulled up! Perfect! (Forget 2 minutes, it was like 5, but it worked out better for us in our scramble!) After the guy had installed everything he said that we had to wait 24 hours until we could use our fridge. Mince! We don't have any cooler bags in our apartment so we got big Carrefour (à grocery store here) bags and loaded them up with our freezer stuff and double bagged! We then put the bags in the coolest part of the apartment with a fan on them in the hopes of keeping it cold 😂. Everything else we took to the other missionary apartment. However, we couldn't save everything so we may or may not have gone through all our ice cream in two days... 🤣 

Long story short, in all worked out and we now have a new fridge and washing machine! 

In the midst of our appliance craziness we had some pretty cool Miracles this week and some amazing lessons! One of our miracles included getting à Facebook reference! The reference note said that she was interested in the Book of Mormon! We called her and she was like "Yea! What is this book!" She was so interested right from the start! We explained it à bit over the phone and she was so excited to set up a rendez-vous for the next day! Unfortunately, the rendez-vous didn't happen because she had something going on, but hopefully it happens this week! She seemed really interested so we are pretty excited about it! 

But, one of the lessons we did have this week was pretty formidable! We taught our friend Caroline who we have been working with for awhile. She has been taught by the missionaries for over a year, and isn't quote ready for baptism but loves the discussions. This week we decided to give her a temple tour in hopes of helping her see the bigger picture and give her a goal to achieve in the future. I guess you could say "the why." The cool thing about my mission is that there are Soeurs assigned to work in the temple and they give tours every day, virtual and in person, where they explain what à temple is and what we do there. It's pretty amazing for us as missionaries to be able to teach our friends about the temple, which can help them better understand the gospel. During this lesson we were able to have two members attend who gave beautiful testimonies about the temple and their experiences alongside the temple Soeurs. Caroline loved the tour, and the spirit was so incredibly strong. At the end we had a good conversation about the temple and she seemed to be really touched by it. Then, to finish off one of the members with us, Frère Mejia, gave our friend a blessing. It was probably one of the most beautiful blessings I have ever heard. It really was a testament of how God truly knows us individually and personally. That is one of my favorite things about missionary work! Over and over again I see and witness miracles and have experiences that testify that God really does know us, personally. 

Spiritual Thought:

This week I read a talk by Elder Eyring, titled "Try, Try, Try" from the October 2018 Général Conference. I recommend you all take a moment to read it, it's amazing! It talks about charity and how we can apply charity in our lives with everyone we meet as well as face the trials of this life. I want to share a quote from it:

"The Savior is the rock upon which we can stand safely and without fear in every storm we face... I bear you my witness that the Savior knows and loves you. He knows your name as you know His. He knows your troubles. He has experienced them. By His Atonement, He has overcome the world." 

What powerful words from an apostle of the Lord! I know that if we ground ourselves upon the rock of the Savior we will be able to face the storms of life. He really does know your troubles and how to help you. Allow yourself to let Him in and build yourself on His rock. He knows you. 

I love you all! Have an amazing week and always remember, Christ knows you and your story! 

À bientôt 💕

-Soeur Hansen