Week 14!!!! Exchanges

Sister Hanson in front of the unfinished Indianapolis Indiana temple.

I got my package and it was great!!!! My legs are a lot warmer!!!!! I love my companion she is great!!! The weather is actually warm. No snow yet it has just been raining lots. I also have no clue what time I will be skyping you guys on Christmas. Sometime between 1 and 6 Pm. In your time zone that would be 11 to 4!

This week we went on exchanges and guess who I went on exchanges with?!? Sister Chidester!!! hahah we had lots of fun!!!! We were able to meet with Ashley again and invite her to church! It was a really good lesson and I could definitely feel the spirit and I could tell she could too!!! We showed her the He is the Gift video and that just brings the spirit so fast!!! That video is definitely a good tool to use to bring the spirit into peoples lives!!! I would encourage all of you to share it with your friends and with people you go and visit! Mom you could share it when you go and visit people in the ward!!!!

Nancy seems like she is ready to get baptized other than she has to get married. Sad:( we will just keep praying and hoping her fiance will marry her other than that she is doing great!!!! Patricia is still not coming to church. She does notice the difference when she has come to church and when she does not come to church!!! We started reading the Book of Mormon with her and she is really liking it!!! I hope one day she will come back we try to meet with her at least 2 times a week. She works a lot so hopefully her job will slow down enough for her to come to church!! 

This week we also had the branch party!!! It was fun and the branch sent us home with so much food! I think I might gain so much weight that you will not recognize me when I got home. NO haha I hopefully won't!! Well I love you all and hope your week is great!!!!! 

Love

Sister Hanson!

Ally's new companion Sister Barker from Layton Utah

Allyson found the Zombie Response Team's car

Week 13!!!! New transfer and new companion!

Allyson's District Christmas Picture

Well I don't want to disappoint everyone but I forgot to take my camera to the library so I will have some pictures next week! How is everyone doing? I am doing great in this branch! My new companion's name is Sister Barker!!!!! I already love her and she is already making Plymouth a great place to be!!!! I still have no clue where I will be skyping you, but at 1 o'clock we will be at a members house. She does not have internet. So I will tell you when i figure that out!

This week has been crazy! We said lots of goodbyes on Tuesday. I didn't say any goodbyes but Sister Chidester did and it was sad. Wednesday was good I got my new companion and we had a blast driving 2 hours north. We also had lunch with Sister Kelly!!!!! She is great I love her. She is the branch president's wife. Oh, and Sister Chidester is in South Bend so when we go on exchanges I will see her again because she is my Sister Training Leader. Ahahah and the other Sister Training Leader is Sister Barker's trainer. Ahahahhaahhah and we are going on exchanges with our trainers so we will have lots of fun!!!!

Allyson with her new companion Sister Barker from Layton, Utah
This picture was texted to her mom by one of the members

Alright, so this new week with Sister Barker is great!!!! We were able to teach Nancy and she is so far liking what we are teaching her! She told us that she is praying about what we are telling her and she feels good when she prays. She is feeling the spirit. I don't know if I told you but she is Pentecostal. That religion scares me. But she is doing wonderful. Now we have to work on getting her to church and getting her married or she cannot get baptized.

We are still trying to get Juliana to commit on a baptismal date. I hope she gets baptized soon!!!!!! She is so ready. We just need to get her mom on board with the whole thing. This week we also got a new investigator!! His name is Mike and he and his wife just had some twins. They are so cute! He was really interested in the Restoration so he committed himself to read it. I hope we can teach him more!!! He and his wife are Methodist. You might hear more about him and might not because he is new he could drop us but we are hoping for the best!!!! The work is moving and I am excited I get to be involved with it!!!!

Also this week I have really felt like a missionary!!! I can teach a lesson by myself and I have learned a lot about who I am and who I can become!!! I am so excited to see what is ahead!!!

I love you all!!!

Love,

Sister Hanson 

Week 12!!!!! Thanksgiving and Museum Fun!

I got some cowboy boots from a member!!!

This week was wild... Wow we did so many things and taught so many people. I have no clue where to start. Well if you didn't already know Transfers are on Wednesday. I will be staying in Plymouth for Christmas!!!

Well I guess I will start with Thanksgiving!!! We went to Sister Kline's house! She is fun. When we got there she had been slaving over the stove since 6 am. Wow she is awesome! The turkey was moist and we had pie! I love pie! We stayed there for a while then went back to our apartment and just lounged around until we had the mission-wide conference call, that was cool. I felt unified with the mission even though we were all over Indiana. 

Friday was fun! You know how we volunteer at the museum? Well on Friday they asked us if we could help them with their Christmas trains event. We were pretty much their crowd control! I met a lot of people and had lots of fun just doing random things for people! I have some pictures of it that I will show you soon! After the train event there was a parade with Santa and Mrs. Claus in it. That was fun. We stayed in the museum and watched the parade from the windows. Then Karen fed us some Noodles and beef on potatoes! Yummy! That is an Indiana specialty. There were also some ice sculptures outside. Then Santa came to the Museum after the parade and we got some pictures with him. If you go onto the Plymouth City Facebook page you will find me with Santa and also the district with Santa.

Saturday was lots of fun! We went on spits with Sister Sherwood and visited some less actives and did her visiting teaching assignments! Then we went to the Richharts to eat dinner. We had such a fun time and just laughed a lot. We left and the other elders in our district told us that they got transfer calls...ahhh. We waited until 10:15 to get our call from President Cleveland. Longest wait of my life! Sister Chidester is going STL and I am staying in Plymouth. President said my companion will be fun and I am super excited about that!

This week I was really worried about Patricia because we haven't seen her at church for 2 weeks now. So I have been praying a lot for her. We decided we would visit her yesterday and she was there! Thank the Heavens. We talked with her for a while and it turns out she overslept and didn't want to show up to the church late. OH man I got a handful. She is doing great we send out a scripture of the day everyday. So that is how she studies. I will do it forever if I have to. We also stopped by Mckenzie this week and she told us that she is interested in coming to church!!!!! Yay! We left her with a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. She has 3 boys and two can come to Scouts so I think once we get them to Scouts they will start progressing! I am so excited that we finally found a family!!!!!! I hope I can help them come unto Christ!

This week has been great! I love you all a hope you had a wonderful week!

Love Sister Hanson!

Our district

The museum where we volunteer.

Here we are with Karin Rettinger

Exchanges!

Allyson with Sister Cutler in South Bend with their hot chocolate

So first off this week temperatures this week are crazy one day we will have below freezing weather the next day will be slightly warm and rainy. It has been raining for 2 days straight now so the ground is wildly wet and when ever you step on it you get pulled in like quick sand! I don't think we will get any tornado warnings now because I pretty sure that season is over. Correct me if I am wrong.

This week we had exchanges and it was so much fun! I went to South Bend with Sister Cutler! She is so cute and we had so much fun! I met so many wonderful people I hope I can serve in South Bend one day! We taught Mary and she is just so cool! I love her she has lots of kids like 4 or 5. Her husband is a less active that not many people have met before but she wants to do the right things for her kids so she is just prime! Although she has difficulty recognizing the spirit. I think once she can do that then she will be baptized and progress more. I also was able to teach my first black person. Her name is Laura and she has so much attitude and her husband is less active also. She wants to learn more so we talked about Lehi's vision. Love that story! Then we ate dinner with this lady who has such a crazy life and is just so positive all the time. Her husband is in jail and she doesn't get to see her granddaughter much but she doesn't let it get her down. I love doing exchanges I learn lots about myself and different ways to do missionary work.

Next transfer is coming up soon. They will be lots of missionaries leaving probably about 30 to 40. Lots of sisters will be leaving. So in the next two transfers we will be going from 255 missionaries to 200 missionaries. Crazy and they will also be closing lots of areas too.

We were able to teach Patty again this week! She just moved on Sunday so we had to get her new address and find it. She doesn't live too far away but her house is smaller now. She seems like she is doing well and even though she doesn't have lots of money she is always giving. Some people might look at her needing things for the holidays but she just wants to give. Wow she is an inspiration to me.

Nothing big really happened this week it was just a lot of little things. I love you all and hope everything is going well!

Sister Hanson!

P.S. sorry my letters are so short I just have no clue what to write anymore because these weeks seem to mesh together. Let me know if there is anything you want to hear about!

Week 10!! Snow has hit Indiana

Allyson's happy about the first snowfall of the year

Wow what a week it has been! It started out pretty normal. We tracted and taught and knocked on doors. But then BAM the weirdest week of my life hit on Thursday!

We haven't been able to get in contact with Nicholas for a few weeks. So on Thursday when we had some extra time and did not know what to do we stopped by his house. To our surprise he was there!!!! It was really cold outside and we couldn't go inside so we talked to him for just a minute and we found out that he has not been smoking for 3 weeks. Miracle right there!!!! We scheduled an appointment to visit him the next night. We were able to meet with Nicholas and he is doing well. We invited him to church and he says he will try to get off of work next week so he can come! Funny thing turns out he is related to Patricia. ahahhahahaha. This town is so small.

Here is where this night gets crazy. Not to mention the cold. We went back to our apartment because we are not allowed to be out at night. So we start doing our usual updating our map. Then Sister Sherwood calls and wants us to come over because she is going through some hard things. So we get ready leave our apartment and we close the door. Once the door is locked we realize we forgot the keys... AHHHHHHH We could not get into our apartment. So we go over to Sister Sherwood's house to get help and instead of us helping her she is helping us. I called the land lord (Bob) and he didn't answer. So we try to beak in. Nothing is working. We ultimately decided that we were going to stay at her house over night until we could get hold of the land lord. Bob decides he would call us right when we are about to sleep so we have to get up get ready and go back to our apartment. He tries all the keys he has and none of them worked! Oh man! So we go back to Sister Sherwood's ( we had to get permission to stay with her from our zone leaders) and stay there. I swear that night I slept on a rock that whole night. So far one of the most memorable nights of my life. He called us the next day at 6 am and said he got into our apartment through some other door that he never opens. He now has my key and is making another set of keys for himself. Needless to say this will not happen again haha.

Juliana is doing great we continue to teach her lessons weekly. We have yet to get her on a baptismal date. She comes to church and she seems to like it okay but she is a 10 year old. What can you expect. She always makes us things and gives them to us. Haha I love her!

Transfers are in 2 weeks on December 3 and from what I know from interviews with President Cleveland I am staying in Plymouth! Well I love you all!

Sister Hanson

Week 9!!! Dinner

Fall in Indiana

This week has been a weird week. Nothing went as planned and we had to go to Mishawaka for Stake Conference. To top off this week we also had two days where we had double dinners!!!!! ahhhhhh Crazy.

Well I have no clue where to start. We had double dinner appointment one day and we ate with some really fantastic people. During the dinners I was just praying I could make it through because the first dinner I almost threw up. So this week I learned the importance of prayer and how if we rely on Heavenly Father to get us through. We can get through anything.

We had Stake Conference this week. It was so wonderful! President Cleveland came and spoke at the adult session and you know what he announced. That we will be getting iPads in about 1 month! Beside the fact they talked about family history and how everyone can be involved with it. I really love family history and finding those cool hidden gems about families. So this week you guys should all do some family history together! They also just put a big emphasis on families and how important they are. The cool thing about that is that our mission has a big focus on families and wants each unit in the mission (companionship) to find a family to teach. We haven't found one yet but we pray everyday that we will. It is cool to see that we get a lot more people opening their doors to us lately. We have been getting the members more involved in missionary work this past transfer. And because of that we have had more doors opened to us they may not lead anywhere but we are able to plant some seeds and copies of the Book of Mormon!

This week we also taught Juliana! She has been coming to church lately and we know she is close to baptism. Hopefully her mom will give us the okay to put her on a baptismal date soon! We taught her the story of Meshack, Shadrack, and Aben-digo. Cool story! They are just the best examples of faith in the Lord. They were willing to give up their lives because they only worshiped God! I hope one day I can have that much faith to give up my life for God. Go read this story in Daniel chapter 3. I love the part where they were in the furnace and Christ was with them. The king was all confused and they were able to come out unharmed. Moral of the story is put God first and everything will work out in the end.

Patricia is doing well since she has been baptized. Now she just needs to be confirmed. longest process ever here in Plymouth but it is definitely worth it. I don't know if I had already explained this or not but here it goes. In Plymouth they baptize people on Sundays because everyone is far away and they want to make sure people get support. So she will be getting confirmed on Sunday.

Well I love all of you and hope you have a wonderful week! Book of Mormon stories and Bible stories are great!

Sister Hanson

Week 8! Time Flies!

Patricia's baptism

Wow this week has just flown by. Yesterday we had interviews with the mission president so that is why I am emailing today! I don't even know where to begin! There are so many things that happened this week.... 

First off we were preparing for a baptism! Patricia's Baptism and she was so excited! We visited her everyday this week before her baptism to help her and answer questions she had! Wow. it is cool to see what God can do in people's lives when they are searching for him! She had her baptismal interview and when she came out she had a few tears and I knew she was ready for baptism! Her baptism went off without a hitch and she was just glowing when she came out even though the water was freezing she loved it anyway! The Branch presidency gave her a quad! She was so excited!

This week we got a new investigator! Her Name is Ashley and she is around our age! She has a four year old son! She is so cool she has been through a lot but she is still strong. She wants to find a church that will fit her and so she decided to try out "Mormons". We taught her the restoration and the Book of Mormon and she is liking it so far! We are meeting with her today so hopefully we can get her on a baptismal date! But I can definitely tell she is sincere because her mom started talking to us and her mom talks a lot. But she wanted to hear the lesson so she told her mom we were going somewhere else so that we could actually talk!

Coolest little miracle this week. We were planning for the next day on Sunday. This potential  investigator popped into my head and so I just say oh let's go visit her! Even though on her record it says to visit after 6 but I just brushed it off. So she is the last person on the list that we have to visit so we go to her house thinking she won't be there. Surprise she was! She told us today was the only day she had off of work because they had a training! We taught her about the Book of Mormon! She told us how the picture of Christ coming to the Americas reminded her of school in Mexico and the story of the white god that came to them for a time and left and never came back. After we left I couldn't believe that had just happened! The Spirit works! Wow I just need to listen to the Spirit more!

Well, I love you all and hope you have a great week! Shout out to Michele Hudson and Joni Thomas. Happy Birthday both of you!

Love Sister Hanson

Patricia with her family

The corn is gone..

Wow! Week 7!

Wow this week was wonderful! We met the standards of excellence for the mission first of all even though I don't feel like we did. Wow there is so much work to be done in Plymouth. I love the people in Plymouth they are so nice and so friendly.

This week we found a new investigator so that was cool. Her name is McKenzie and she has a family. We tracted into her and we asked if we could come back because she was busy and usually when we go back the people don't answer. She answered and  we taught her the restoration! Her boy Mathew wanted to listen. She doesn't know much about religion but she agreed with everything we told her. She really only knows that there is a God out there somewhere.

We also taught an internigator this week (a person who has been investigating for the longest time ever and knows it is true but doesn't want to get baptized) We taught her the plan of salvation! During the lesson the spirit was so strong and I knew she knew what we were teaching was true. oh and she is also going to teach me some religious signs because she interprets for a deaf woman at another church.

We also have a baptism coming up on Sunday!!! crazy!! Patricia will be getting baptized on Sunday. She is so ready! She loves the gospel and wants to learn more and more!

We have been working with Juliana this week and we keep on asking her to come to church and she won't. She knows she wants to be baptized but she needs to come to church more. She loves every time we come over and I think she just wants to be a missionary. She loves book of Mormon stories.

Well that is all I can think of other than I love you and I wish I could just send a video of the week because I can't tell everything I want in one email.

Love Sister Hanson

Week 6!

Week six is the week of transfers. So I found out I will be staying in Plymouth at least one more transfer!!!! 

Well I guess I will start out talking about the wonderful FHE we had with Jackie and Juliana and her little brother Joe! We watched the Lamb of God! That is an intense little video! I think I saw it when I was little but showing it to a 9 and 7 year old was a little intense. It had a great impact on them and now they really know who Jesus is and what he did for them! So that was cool to see that they are coming to know Jesus a lot better!

We went to fishers on Tuesday it was an all day thing you probably saw a picture on Facebook! We had a training on the Game Plan which was cool because it really helped me understand why we do the things we do as missionaries! I saw some sisters that I roomed with in the MTC so that was wonderful as always!

We Taught Patricia this week! She is doing well but lots of things keep getting in the way of her progression. For one of her lessons we brought a member named Sister Miller and it is so funny because when we bring members they just make the lesson so much better. During the lesson the spirit was so strong but it was a different kind of spirit I have never felt. Sister Miller came because she was needed to help Patricia. I know that God gave us that inspiration because they really connected during the lesson. I feel in that lesson we as missionaries were there to teach and bring the spirit. Sister miller was there to make what we were teaching real. So that was awesome! 

This week we also had the fall party! Well this party was great fun and we talked to tom and pat again! We got to go on a hay ride, do donut on a string, had lots of yummy food, and played volleyball! This party was at the Richharts! It was lots of fun but I got muddy shoes.

Random not fun fact we were tracting this week and I was walking down the stairs and I fell down the stairs. Now I have this wild bruise on my leg. But all is well. Also people like to give crosses in Indiana!

Sister Hanson

Week 5! The Work is Moving!

This week was awesome! First off on Tuesday we got to watch meet the Mormons! That was the best movie ever! If you don't get a chance to see it in theaters it will be on Netflix soon enough! All of you just need to see it!

So we went to go and visit these potentials in the out skirts of Plymouth. They are so into genealogy. They have this huge fan chart that they have almost filled out their whole family line with it. It makes me want to do some more family history. Just wow. They are always working on it and visiting places where their ancestors are from. We tried to talk to them about the gospel but they were not at all interested. They want to show us their cabin sometime so if we ever get back there they probably will. In our area we have about 9 to 12 towns so its hard to visit everyone.

So this week we were able to help Sister Sherwood paint her house. We painted her bathroom lime green. It actually made it look better because before it was like this ugly rose color. She loves us so much that she told us she was coming to general conference.

Patricia on of our investigators and she is working towards baptism. Her husband converted in Mexico and referred her to us and her husband is still in mexico. She has seen that change in him and wants that for herself and kids now. Whenever we go over she is always so excited to learn more and more. This week we talked about tithing and how we pay it and why we pay it. She told us that she hadn't been paying it. And we told her she didn't have to pay it until she is baptized. She is so sweet she is always willing to do anything we tell her. 

We had some members move into our ward recently and its a family with four children and they went to Utah state and lived in Logan. They are so cool and he is a dentist and they are always willing to come to lessons and help us and feed us. I love when the ward members feed us.

We taught Nicholas this week. He loves everything we teach him. He was catholic as a child and is very limited in his knowledge about gospel things so we have to go slow with him. We taught him about repentance this week and turns out he already does it he just needs to pray for forgiveness.

We also had Zone Training this week. That was lots of fun. I had an opportunity to learn more about the atonement and be able to learn how we can teach the Plan Of Salvation in 5 minutes. It is definitely hard to teach it in 5 minutes so we only go over the first part of it and talk about the atonement a lot. Then we are able to use that to set up another appointment to come back to the persons house!

Juliana is the 10 year old girl we have been teaching but she is scared to get baptized so we had to push her baptism date back. She is starting to listen better and she definitely loves when we come over. So I am hopeful that she will be baptized soon.

Love Sister Hanson

1 Month! The Priesthood! - and two other weeks of letters!

We haven't been posting on Allyson's blog for a few weeks, so I better get some stuff up on it.

Although never living in Idaho, Allyson still claims Idaho as her own.

Here are Allyson's last few letters:


Wow Week 2 in Indiana!    Sept 23

Well I don't even know where to start. I have a list so I could remember everything that happened so here it goes.

1.You know how we always point out cemeteries for dad, well there are cemeteries on every corner so you could be buried in Indiana if you wanted.

2. Everything is green here you don't see brown unless it is a side walk or a tree.

3.I forgot my white tank top...

4.Indiana is called the crossroads so there are train tracks everywhere. Mom would hate the train tracks. ahah

5. Our fridge makes weird noises all the time and we have a mouse in our house.

6. There is no time for my self except at 6:30 to 8 and 10 pm all the other times we are so busy.

7. In my zone we have only three sets of sisters. random other thing i see squirrels everywhere i look.

8. We run into Jehovah's Witnesses lots. The other day we ran into one right before a huge rain storm and he started to ask us what we believed and then it started raining. So we sat on his porch and he took everything we had (emotionally) out of us. We ended up talking for 2 hours and the storm was over by the time we were done talking. He wants us to come back but we aren't because he is not going to progress so we want to spend our time on those people.

9. You know your song about chicken and corn. Well we sang it a lot one day and a member ended up feeding us chicken and corn that day. ahah

10. Miracles are real. We were feeling all discouraged one day and nobody was answering their doors and all our appointments had fallen through. We were discouraged. So we had one back up plan and that was to go to a former investigators house. Her name is Jessica. We were pretty sure she wasn't going to be there but we went anyways. We get to her house and knocked on her door. She answers. Right away she is just enthusiastic that we are there and lets us in right away. She told us that a couple months back a former elder from the area sent her a post card and that she was so impressed that he took the time to send her a post card. She has a son and he is turning 9. She hadn't seen missionaries at her door for about three years. We talked about the BOM. She is going to read it and we have a return appointment. The lord brings us down so that we can be lifted up.

11.Here is a fun fact. The tornado siren goes off once a day at noon. its loud and alarming. It went off while we were teaching the Jehovah's Witness but it wasn't a warning for a tornado it was a warning for a fire because there was lightening.

12. Tracting: I didn't like it at first but now it is lots of fun! We get to meet so many new people and learn about new religions we have never heard of.

13.I get to go bowling today!

14. We had mission conference yesterday. It was exactly what i needed. Elder Perkins of the seventy came. He is the coolest person I have ever met. He served in the Taiwan mission and later became the mission president of that same mission. I don't really remember anything I learned there but I do remember that the spirit was there and it was strong. I encourage you to go read Acts. I don't remember what chapter but it has a lot to do with missionary work.

Elder and Sister Perkins

Where do Mike and Andrea live? What ward are they in? I love you all and Spencer yes you. Send me some pictures of my Favorite niece... Just because I am not home I still want to see her every week. I love you all again! Have a good week.

Love,

Sister Hanson

Week 3  Sept 29

Family, 

I don't even know where to start. I like pictures so send me some. I also got the package thanks for all of the shirts and shorts. The shorts are too short to wear outside so i just wear them inside while lounging. Oh and when you send me more packages, I love the workouts you put in it so put more of those.

I guess this week was weird but missionary weeks are always weird. We are just not very normal. On Wednesday we went tracting (we go tracting a lot) by a Spanish Pentecostal church and found this man named Caesar. His dad is the preacher at that church but he seemed like he didn't go to his dads church. We taught him about the restoration of the gospel. He was very interested and so we gave him a book of Mormon and asked him when he found out that the church was true that he would be baptized. He said yes. Wow so many people say yes to baptism it is sooooooooooooooo cool.

Thursday and Friday felt like they were forever long. Thursday was just a lot of planning and  nothing. It was kinda discouraging. Friday we did loads of tracting and got nothing again. Wow discouraging can you say... So we had one appointment left his name was Nicholas he speaks Spanish (hopefully we can get a Spanish branch soon. seems like everyone we are teaching speaks Spanish.) anyways we get to his house and start teaching him about the restoration and he is just so intrigued. We have to go slow and use small words because he can't understand English like we can. We gave him a Spanish Book of Mormon and (this is my first time) commit him to be baptized(first time asking or committing anyone to be baptized) he said yes with out hesitation.

Saturday! Great fun. We did a service project at the Richart's home. I got to dig holes and touch nasty chicken poop and I smelt like it the rest of the day. Still great fun. We were putting siding on their barn and other stuff like that. The Richart's are a big family they have 8 kids and now only 2 live at home. I am eating dinner with that inactive family on Tuesday. By the way I have exchanges that day and I have to be the leader on everything here in Plymouth. I am not too nervous.

Service project at the Richart's home.

Sister Chidester and Elder Jacobson

Still Saturday. We taught lots of people that day our whole day was busy so that is always nice when appointments don't fall through. Went to women's conference. Best thing ever. When you are a missionary and go to conference it's like they are aiming a fire hose at you and only you. Everything I heard was in relation to missionary work. Wowazaz. I just wanted more and more and more. 

Want to hear an embarrassing moment. Well here it is. We were at a dinner appointment we had hot dogs with chili or hamburgers (our whole district was there by the way) and I get some chili to put on my hot dog and boom it falls on my shirt. great and it is white. Even greater. I got it out today in the laundry. 

Here is another cool role play story! We were doing role plays for training (oh I get to do a training in district meeting...I don't know how I feel about it) Back to the story. It was my turn Sister Chidester just did it. So it was my turn. I had no clue where I was going with it and I just kept listening and asking questions I thought were relevant. Then it ended up being so mind blowing. I had been able to listen to the spirit and found out what was really troubling her and asked her why she didn't read the BOM. Wow it was totally the spirit. Listen to the spirit.

Okay I have some challenges for you. First, learn the First Vision. Second, feed the missionaries any chance you get. Third, send me a small copy of The Living Christ. I want to memorize it. Fourth, don't make visiting and home teaching a chore really just be their friends.

I love you all!

Sister Hanson

1 Month! The Priesthood!     Oct 6

Let start with some random facts! Today I learned you can convert to Judaism and the water here tastes like rust and looks like rust. Don't worry about it mom I will be okay! On Saturday while we were trying to visit people and it started snowing. So I had to break out the warm coat already and the wind was so chilling to my legs.

So we had exchanges on Tuesday and that day was full of miracles. We went to a less active's house and were originally planning to meet with the less active but then we ended up talking to a girl who was at the house. Her dad was diagnosed with cancer and Sister Caldwell and her really hit if off. We talked about prayer and how she can use it. I could definitely feel the spirit as we were talking to her. I knew that we were needed there that day because that less active had been in my head all day and I just kept getting the prompting that we needed to go and visit her.

Allyson with whom I'm assuming is Sister Caldwell

Another guy we are teaching his name is Nicholas and he speaks Spanish. We were able to teach him about the BOM and he has been reading it and is really enjoying the miracles are happening to Lehi and his family!

Conference was great I felt like a lot of the talks were about Jesus Christ and his Gospel upon this earth. During the whole general conference I felt so overwhelmed because there was so much information throw at me about everything that I need to emphasize on when I am teaching.

One last cool thing that happened this week. One of our investigators named Patricia had her daughter in the hospital. She came back on Saturday night and we talked to her about a priesthood blessing and asked her if she wanted one. She said yes so we got the elders and brought them over and explained how it would happen and how it would work according to her faith. So we got started with the blessing and the spirit in the room was just overwhelming. Wow the priesthood is powerful. That was just a wonderful experience with the spirit and Patricia has so much faith.

Sister Hanson

Just us in the car being lost because we had a dinner appointment that we couldn't find but in the end we found it and had a great dinner.

Ally nearby a corn field.

Plymouth the Promised Land

We received our first letter from Allyson after arriving in Indiana on Monday. We also received some pictures. Enjoy!

Allyson with the other missionaries going to Indiana

Hi all,

Well the first thing we had to do was drive two hours to Plymouth with Sister Kelly(she is the Branch president's wife). I was way tired and wanted to sleep but I didn't. We got to Plymouth and it was flooding everywhere and we went shopping and then went to Mutual. The branch has about 100 people who attend and they all come from the towns around Plymouth. The city has a nice small town feel and the chapel is in the middle of nowhere and it is smaller than the size of the seminary building at copper hills. It is a level one chapel. Ours is a level three chapel.

Plymouth Branch Church Building

Day one was very different I had the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. I met the district and they are a wild bunch there are three companionship's in our district we are trying to get some Spanish elders so we can start a Spanish branch. I always have fun when I am around them. So here comes the ups and downs; we started tracting in North Liberty. We started talking to this man on the street and I could tell he was angry with God. He wouldn't let us talk and he started swearing at us. We left and I had a cry because he took the spirit away fast. After that just wanted to go but Sister Chidester said we needed to keep going so we did! We started in a new neighborhood and we found Josh, he is definitely prepared to receive the Gospel. He and his family are looking for a new church because theirs is money hungry, their boy does cub scouts (perfect). The only thing is they are busy on Sundays :(.

Random fun thing we went to a lady's house where she spoke Spanish but she couldn't understand English (I could tell she was lying, she could totally understand what we were saying). So I gave her a pass along card and I though I gave her and English one but it was Spanish! Made my day.

Plymouth is great! I wish all of you could be here with me!

Sister Hanson with her first companion Sister Chidester

Leaving for Indiana...

Today, Laura and I received a call at about 7:20AM from Allyson from the airport. She's excited to get to the mission field and sounded great. We talked for about 10 minutes and said our last goodbyes until we can talk to her again at Christmas.

I tracked her flight on the internet at work, making sure that the plane stayed in the air and landed where it was supposed to. Her plane left a little late from SLC because of a huge thunderstorm that hit the airport, but she made it to Minnesota in time to catch the connecting flight to Indianapolis. I guess I'm a bit protective of my Ally.

Later in the day we received an email with a photo attached of Allyson with President Cleveland and his wife saying that she landed safely and is excited to serve.

Laura and I both received a text message with a picture at about 5:00PM from a man named Steve. He had been on their flight and took the picture of their group along with all of the phone numbers of the families of the missionaries so he could send it to their families.

That was great to get!

Laura was also contacted on Facebook by a person who lives in Indiana letting us know that she was baking a cookie for her with her name on it. She'll give it to her as she goes to meet her trainer. 

What a blessing to see all of these kind people taking care of the missionaries.  That's what the gospel is about...taking care of your fellow man.

John

God Knows! - Allyson's Final Letter from the MTC

So today me and one of the other sisters in my district were doing some role plays. I was the missionary and I was trying to explain to the investigator (the other sister) that having the gospel in your life is a blessing and the role play was just going horrible. One of our teachers taught us that if we just listen the spirit will guide the lesson. I decided to do that and when I was doing that I heard a scripture come to me. It was John 3:16! The spirit had come and it was strong. Listen!

God knows what you are thinking. Even if you are just doing a role play he knows.

So there was an Elder having a hard time in my district and he is just really home sick. We became friends and he told me so much about his life. And because I was his friend he has more of a desire to stay on his mission and he wants to fulfill his calling!

Listen to the spirit!

Love Sister Hanson!

I Am A Missionary!

Ally's first letter from the MTC

Wow the MTC is so great! The first day I was at the MTC was the most overwhelming day of my life I felt like 3 days in one! The spirit is so great here! I just wanted to say I am doing well and so far there is nothing really scary here! Everyone is so friendly and they are always smiling!

My companion is Sister Anderson and she has a wonderful testimony! I have to say it is hard getting used to having someone around you all the time! But you just have to learn to love them!

I have learned to teach with the spirit and that is the coolest thing in the world! I would love to get emails and pictures from! I figured I can't send pictures until I am out in the field so you will just have to anticipate them for a while!

Thanks for all the love and support!

Love Sister Hanson!

The MTC

Today was the day that we sent out Allyson off on her mission.  It's one of those bittersweet events.

As a good friend said, and I'm paraphrasing, "You teach your kids to do the right things and to make the correct choices, but then when they do (like going on a mission) you miss them incredibly."

We started the day off at home, making sure that she had all that she needed and she was packed well. Cathryn (my daughter-in-law) was such a great help earlier in the week. She helped Ally to her organize her stuff and get it packed. I don't think we could have got all of her stuff in her suitcases without her help.

Once we were sure she had everything, I took a couple of pictures of her in our back yard.

Then it was time to get in the car and make the 38 mile journey to the MTC.  We met Sarah, Cathryn, Julia and Spencer at the Golden Corral in Orem for a so-so lunch.  Then we headed to the MTC and took some pictures of her with the family.

Sarah, mom, Katie, Allyson, dad

Mom and dad with Allyson

Sarah and Katie

Cathryn, Julia, and Spencer

With her little niece Julia.

Time for goodbye hugs starting with Spencer,

Cathryn,

Sarah,

Katie,

all of the sisters,

Mom,

...and finally dad.

Then she's gone...

...without a look back.

We're proud of our Allyson. Coming home I was feeling melancholy.  Happy, yet feeling a loss. It's hard saying goodbye to a daughter for 18 months. I'll miss her tremendously. I love her immensely. She's a great daughter. We're praying for her to do well and to be safe. She's going to be a great missionary!!