July 27 2014

"For me, the reading of the scriptures is not the pursuit of scholarship. Rather, it is a love affair with the word of the Lord and that of his prophets." President Hinckley 1985

This week was a BLUR. If it was not for my planner I would have no clue what happened. 

Highlights of the week:

-Member present lesson, where the member followed the spirit to the location of the lesson, because he had no clue how to get there and doesn't own a cell phone. It was insane.

-Making Pinatas, because we all know I love doing pinata lessons

-Getting a new investigator!!!!

-reconnecting with a former investigator at the art museum! (She's so ready now...)

-Drop by lessons and free Chinese noodles. Yum.

-Our first ever English class!

-The best part, going and volunteering at the Handicap center, it is always the highlight of my week, I love going and seeing them and their zeal for life despite their very real challenges! 

-Ramadan is over and Raya has begun. (The Malay..aka Muslims...are done with their fast and happiness is restored to Kuching!)

This week was good, missionary life is finally completely natural to me and I hope I never loose sight of that. I have been so reflective this past week with missionaries going home and transfers coming up....again. I am finally cultivating the deep love for the gospel that I have always wanted and admired in others. I love the scriptures, I am obsessed with the scriptures, I finally have a love affair with the scriptures. As I was reading the BOM this morning I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the trials and pains that the prophets went through so that I, ME, SISTER HANSEN, could have them now, for my trials, which are so small in comparison. I made a goal last week to finish the BOM by the end of July, I am currently only in Alma 45, but as I have been spending all my "free" time reading the word of God, I can't even explain the joy and peace it has brought to me. The work has been slow for me the past 2 months here in Kuching. I would lie if I said I hadn't gotten discouraged, but reading about Ammon, or Abinadai, or Moroni, or Alma the Younger, the spiritual heroes, the amazing missionaries, I have found that the promises to them and their labors are true of me and my labors as well. I have only a short time left here in the vineyard, and I am stoked to finish it strong. 

I am going super sister missionary on all of you now. Please, from the bottom of my heart, do missionary work, share the gospel, pray for opportunities, and then seize them. I have never been so happy in my entire life. So many of the problems we face now would be non-existent if we just turn outwards and serve others. 

I don't have any funny stories or weird food that has been eaten this week, but I do have a renewed desire to try my hardest and to do my best as the Lord's servant. I LOVE THIS WORK. 

Sister Emma Lou Hansen

The Many Colors of Sister Hansen ....Literally

Before I start telling you about my week, let me tell you about my current obsession on the mission...I LOVE STUDYING THE GOSPEL! Ahhh I am sad I never felt as though I needed to learn more and more about the gospel till now. Currently I am reading the Infinite Atonemtent, Jesus the Christ, Church History in the Fullness of Times, and Daughters in my Kingdom, in conjunction with the BOM and O.T. of course! I am literally obsessed. I now get ready in 10 minutes to have 50 extra minutes to read in the morning and get ready for bed super quick to have another additional 60 minutes before I sleep. There is just so much to learn and hardly anytime to learn it. Currently I am really loving Leviticus and the Old Testament institute manual. I have to share this killer quote with all of you! "Man's duty to God is not the fiving up of on faculty, but the entire surrender of all. So Christ Sums up the first commandment-all the mind, all the soul, all the affections. 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.' Refers so particularly of the parts of the burnt-offering...The head is the well-known emblem of the thoughts; the legs, the emblem of the walk; and the inwards, the constant and familiar symbol of the feelings and affections of the heart. The fat represents the energy of not one limb or faculty, but the health and vigor of the whole. In Jesus these were all surrendered and all without spot or blemish. Had there been but one thought in the mind of Jesus which was not completely given to God. Had there been but one affection in the heart of Jesus which was not yeilded to his father's will. Had there been but one step in the walk of Jesus which was not taken for God, but for his own pleasure; then he could NOT have offered himself. But Jesus gave up all. HE RESERVED NOTHING. All was burnt.  All was consumed upon the altar." -Jukes SO GOOD!

So basically this week was stellar. Every moment we killed it! 

Miracle of the Week:

Let me tell you a story. So this week we were super optimistic about our 2 on date, until Tuesday. One of them moved to Penang and the other dropped off the face of the Earth, she can't meet for a month of two...That's not the miracle though. We received a referral on Sunday from the senior couple here so feeling completely defeated we grudgingly called up the potential Peggy, and she wanted to meet with us that day! It was insane, we taught her the restoration and she became a new investigator. After the lesson we find out that she has heard all the missionary discussions before due to helping translate for her friend. Also her English is impeccable, which is a gem here in Sarawak! The next day She calls us and wants to take us to lunch but we were quite busy so we rescheduled for Saturday, all I can say is she is literally perfect. Such a kingdom builder. She read about the W.O.W. and Tithing, and she actually likes them. In fact she bought us fruit, because the Word of Wisdom says to eat lots of fruits and vegetables. So all in all after the horrible news we received earlier in the week we were blessed with such a killer miracle! 

Weird Eats:

Durian. gross. all I can say is gross. It tastes like rotted onions and trash. "The King of Fruits."

Mangosteen. "The Queen of Fruits." So yum. It is delicious and will probably be eaten on the daily.

Pig Intestine Soup: Actually called Bu Ka Te. Little did we know that it was pig intestines until we were eating it and talking about how good it was. Gross. 

Funny Story:

So every Sunday night we go to President Teo's house for dinner, and the conversation is always hilarious but this week it was especially uncomfortable and funny. So one of the Elder's I work with is Elder Mitchell and the poor guy is the target of all the jokes. Often referred to as Sister Mitchell (after pretending to be a relief society president) was body slammed all night. Hahah so we got on the topic of Adam and Eve and how the woman was created from Man, but they need each other. Then President Teo said, "Elder Mitchell/Sister Mitchell you are perfect because you are a boy and a girl. You don't need any one else." Haha Sister Leavitt and I are dying at this point. Teo continues and says, "what is that called again? A....Hermaphrodite...."It was horrible and uncomfortable, but it was hilarious! Poor Elder Mitchell. He only gets teased so much because he can take it.

Title Story:

As you will see from the photos this week my skin got wrecked! Splits was this week, and due to a lack of bikes, we had to go a day with out bikes. Naturally the day we went without we ended up having to walk 3-4 hours in the sun to our appointments. I came out of that day looking like a lobster. Then the next day we biked to Matang, (about 1 hour one way), and my arms now look like a stripped easter egg. It's terrible but we are doing work, so I can handle a horrible farmers tan or two! 

In other news I have hit my official 8 months. I am shocked. The fact that on the 23rd of this month I will only have 9 months left is even more of a shocker. Ayyyy missions. Such a crazy fun unique experience especially in the jungles of East Malaysia! 

Love you!

Sister Emma Lynne Hansen

also can you believe those dogs I sent you a photo of? So gross. There are no normal dogs here, only zombie dogs!

"If your bike breaks a miracle is coming

Wow! This week.

I don't even know what has happened, it was such a whirlwind!

Monday:

For preparation day on Monday we decided to hit water front by the ZL's request that we have a day with the zone. Haha we trek up there only to get caught in a massive rainstorm. That was ok it was just a lot of jalan-jalaning in the mall there. On the way back though we got our p-day adventure when Sister Leavitt's bike got a killer flat and we spent the night in the apartment trying to take the tire off and find the leak. (We had to laugh because in the previous week we had to go to the bike shop to repair her bike and gravity had gotten the better of me almost everyday. Elder Scott had noticed a pattern and told us if your bike breaks you are going to get a miracle.)

Tuesday:

This was such a killer day! We did work. After district meeting and taking Sister Leavitt's bike in for a new inner-tube we booked it to go see our investigator Shana and had a lesson taught about tithing, it wasn't an amazing lesson, but we realized really quickly her comprehension of what we were teaching, and it was small. She wants it though, so bad. After her lesson we litterally had 2 minutes to race to our next lesson with Jessie a newer investigator that sends slightly weird sms's and taught her the restoration, no matter how many times I teach the story of Joseph Smith I love it more and more each time. After her lesson we went to a handicap facility that Sister Hales and I had been to a couple times previous to see if there was weekly service we could give there. I am so glad we checked! We can go any day we want between 2 and 5 and visit with those who stay there. It's such a simple thing to do but it was such a blast! I loved every minute of it! Then it was dinner time and we were able to go and visit our investigator who owns a burger stand to give him a reading chart and to contact in the vicinity. It was a blast.

Wednesday and Thursday:

I will give you the highlights because I am realizing time is winding down! Haha! WE FINALLY GOT SHANA TO THE KDC! She is unable to have sundays off which means she cannot be baptized, so we wanted her to come the the chapel and to feel the special spirit there. I am 100% positive it worked and her desire to come to church is growing. So grateful for members with cars. We also got to visit a LA who is my age with a couple of the youth/ysa from the branch and it was such a fun lesson. We "pretended" to teach them the Restoration and got in some major BTR. 

Friday:

We had a lesson with our investigator that owns the burger shack and it was 2 hours long, and one of the hardest lessons I've had on my mission. We may have accidentally dropped him. By accidentally though I mean we weren't planning on doing it, but the spirit was! It was ok, but I am pretty heart broken about it!

Saturday:

My branch is AMAZING. so to start off the day we went to the senior couples home to make cream puffs for branch bowling that night, it was a blast and I absolutely adore my elders and the senior couple. Then we went to bowling and the members had brought 10 non-members with them. We were able to bowl, have fun, and get some major missionary work in! It was great and I am so stoked to call all the referrals we were given!

Sorry this was rushed towards the end, but I am running out of time! I love you all so much and I love this work!

Sister Lou!

Building and Burning Bridges

It is a new transfer out here in the field, I can't believe it, I feel like they are speeding up. I am staying in Kuching branch and i am stoked. I think I am going to be distraught when I have to leave these people and my bike. 

I realize I haven' sent a big e-mail around for 2 weeks, Sorry... So on to the highlights! First is the Gawai party which I may have already told you about, but I was obsessed with! To enter said party all the missionaries had to line up outside and take shots of zapple to get in, which is highly inappropriate, but as they say, "Malaysia Boleh." The party was packed full of food and Iban dancing, I couldn't understand anything anyone said but i could feel the love the all had for each other and the love heavenly father has for them. Another fond memory was hiking Bako, where Sister Hansen hit the jungle a little too hard and got dehydration but made it out alive and got to see some amazing scenes and monkeys along the wa. The last is Zone Conference! AHH, so amazing the leaders here are out of this world, so amazing and it came at the perfect time. The main message they focused on was Repentance and changing NOW! We are all often too casual about it all and I know I needed that push towards developing and progressing now. 

Now that you have the all the catch up information I can tell you all about the amazing things and not so amazing things that happened this week. 

So on Tuesday after district meeting our appointment got cancelled and we decided to take that opportunity to get Sister Hales a bike box for moving to her new area. No big deal right? We thought it would only take like 15 minutes tops...WE WERE SO WRONG. let me put in a little disclaimer: I am a horrible trainer. Anyways so we get the bike box and realize how HUGE it is and we both said, "wow that's pretty big, we probably shouldn't bike it home." Then I went real irresponsible and decided I could carry the box (that was larger than my bike) and ride it to our apartment 10 minutes away. So I pick up the box and start out, I make it 10 feet then crash. Nothing too bad mostly embarrassing. This sweet, kind of nosy, malay man comes up to us and tells us not to ride the bike box home that we need to break the box down and get a ride. We listened to him and walked around the corner until he couldn't see us anymore and devised a way for me to take the box from sister hales while I was riding, you know use the momentum. Well, I got the box, I got it good, however I grabbed the box on the side of the brakes. Bad news bears. I got pretty far, I was really proud. I was so close then I just had to turn around. Worst mistake of my life. When I turned around the box got stuck in the back wheel and sister hansen took flight for a good minute. Haha. the back tire fell off, I destroyed my wrist and Kuching started to flood, Noah's ark style. After laying on the street for awhile this nice 200 year old man asked if I was ok and helped me up. I carried my bike to shelter and put the chain and bike tire back on the bike. At this point my wrist was the size of Texas and I had given myself a grease unibrow and soul patch. I swallowed my pride and called the senior couple to pick us up and take us home. We made it and my wrist is fine now. Moral of this story is to follow promptings, or to put the big box on the side of the bike without the brakes. Either can. 

Wednesday was sad, Sister Hales packed and we had a lesson and got a new investigator and put her on date. The Plan of Salvation is so powerful. Regardless of how it is taught you can't help but to feel the love God and the savior have for you. 

Thursday my new companion came, Sister Leavitt, she is SO COOL. we were in the MTC together and I am legitimately stoked to work with her and learn from her. The day was mostly waiting for her plane to come in and take her grocery shopping. 

Friday was Mr. Lim day. Mr. Lim is my kindred spirit, he has been an investigator for a year or so and still doesn't believe in God. We had a killer lesson with him about prayer and God's love for him and then that night we went to Cat's Pyjamas his burger stall. The best burgers ever. We were able to do some major BTR and I feel like he really connected with us and trusts us, which means the next step is progression! :)

Saturday and sunday were good, I accidentally broke the word of wisdom at a potential investigator appointment and I had to repent, but don't worry it all worked out.

This week has been one of miracles and adventures, laughs and cries. This mission is changing me I realized and I can' wait to see what the Lord wants me to do next!

Sister Emma Lou Hansen

P.S. 

so I realized I didn't put the title story in. So missionaries are infamous for burning bridges with members in this branch I have been killing myself to build them. I had finally built one with the relief society president and got an appointment for Tuesday. The day I almost died. We missed the appointment and a bridge was definitely burned. It's under construction currently but I have great faith it will be the next golden gate!