Best week ever!

Allyson with Sister Fowler - a missionary that was in her MTC district.

Well this week was so great! We were so busy and that is always great in missionary work! We are trying to get 3 people to baptism right now! Crystal, Pamela, and Beth! They are all doing very well! They all want to be baptized for the right reasons, it is just getting them there that is the problem! I think the hardest thing for all of them is coming to church right we were planning on 5 investigators coming to church yesterday and none of them showed up. I don't let it get to me as much as I used to anymore. It is just sad to see the people we teach not want to keep their commitments. But hey, they've got to want it! But don't think my week was sad because it was so wonderful! 

Oh and Sunday we had a broadcast! That broadcast was wonderful! We had Elder Neil L Anderson and Robert D Hales speak! Those two are some of my favorites. They talked a lot about family relationships and being a witness to everyone you meet of Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ is truly the center of everything I do and everything the church is about! I loved the scripture he shared! Doctrine and Covenants 45:9 "to be a light to the world, and to be a standard for my people". Wow, we can be a light to everyone around us! We can bring them the happiness that we have just by being their friend and inviting them to church and other activities!

We had a youth fireside that we went to this week! It was so great and one of the speakers talked about the atonement and how is intertwined with families! People come and go in our lives but our family does not! They stay! We are always there and we all love each other even though sometimes we fight. If you can imagine that love multiplied by infinity! That is how much love Christ has for us! Wow, almost unimaginable for us! That is what the atonement is - UNIMAGINABLE LOVE!

Okay now funny story of the week! So we were driving to Moorseville this week! Actually it was Saturday! Anyways I was driving and a construction crew cut a huge hole in the road and it was raining a lot on Saturday.... So there are not many warning signs for this hole in the road. We hit it and you know how I said it was raining. Well the hole is filled with dirt. You know what rain does to dirt right. So we hit this hole and there is no dirt so it is just a deep hole. The hole bends the rim and we get a flat tire. So now we are on a spare tire while our rim is getting fixed! TADaaaa. We had some fun!

Well I love you all. Hope you have had a great week and I hope you have a great week!

Love Sister Hanson

Allyson's district

Exchanges!

Picture of Allyson and Sister Lowry by Indy right before exchanges! IUPUI is pretty much in Indy. You walk off of campus and you are downtown.

As you can tell by the titles I went on exchanges! I bet you cannot guess where. I went on campus to IUPUI (Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis)! Wow that was a change from regular missionary work! I bet you cannot guess who I went with. You guessed it my trainer. Sister Chidester. hahaha She just follows me everywhere. It was a good experience for me. I know you can't believe it but sometimes it is scary to talk to just a random person especially when you are talking to them about the gospel. It was a lot of fun I learned a lot about myself and where my testimony is!

This week we also were listening to a talk on Sunday and we got inspired to help the members get more involved with missionary work! So every dinner appointment we have we will be handing out a book mark we made that has steps/rules to make their homes more missionary oriented. So I am pretty excited for that. Hopefully that will get the ball rolling in the ward!

We have had a lot of finding miracles this week! Last night we were going to go inside but instead we decided to stop by some people we talked to on friday! They let us in their house. No one in Indiana does that.. hahaha. Then we taught them the restoration! Gave each a BOM and they are going to read it! Can you say grace!

I love you all and missionary work is fun! We have been having lots of grace happening to us lately and it is because of our faith! "Miracles are wrought by faith". "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith". Have a good week!

Love Sister Hanson

Picture of Allyson and her companion Sister Lowry

The weather is great!

Allyson with Sister Lowry

So today I woke up and all the trees and flowers are in bloom! You walk outside and you feel the great humid weather! Oh wow I love this weather! It is pretty much the real first day of spring here!

The work is going in Plainfield! We picked up a new investigator named Darcy! She is the sister of one of the recent converts! She likes coming to church and her mom is already a member! She seems to trust us and we hope to start teaching her soon!

This week we also taught a lady named Pamela! She is great! She was taught a while ago! She knows a lot about the church! And she wants to be baptized! So we set a date for May 16th! Her son is a member and he helps us a lot! Now we just need to get her to church!

We had Why I Believe last night! Why I Believe is when a bunch of converts come and pretty much tell their conversion story/testimony! Those are the best because we see President Cleveland there!

But we are really close to the city so we see lots of missionaries there too. We do fun stuff here in Plainfield and the ward is really good at feeding us most nights! And all I have to say is being on a mission is the best thing I have ever done! It gets hard but there are those moments that make it all worth it! Feeling the spirit and helping people come closer to Christ also makes me smile! What makes you smile?

Love Sister Hanson

Painting the bathroom

CONFERENCE!!!!

Allyson with her companion Sister Lowry 

Wow don't you just love General Conference! I love General Conference! It is exactly what I needed! Let me tell you about my favorite couple of talks! More like I will just give you a bunch of quotes to think about! ahaha

 I love what Linda K Burton said " Seek to complete rather than compete". There are a lot of things in this world that we can compete with and never measure up to. The only thing we need to do in this life is compete with ourselves to complete ourselves!

I also love what L. Whitney Clayton said "We become the substance of our faith!". That is so true! Whatever we believe and put our trust in is what we become! I find myself becoming what I have faith in and what I think about! If you have dreams and have faith they can become accomplished if you have faith that they will!

Just one more that I really loved was Joseph A Sitati. He talked about our divine nature! We have the potential to become like God! Wow. We cannot comprehend what God has in store for us but I know we all the Divine Nature to become better everyday. That is all we strive for in this life and in the next life to come we will gain all that Heavenly Father has in store for us! It is important to have an eternal perspective because if we don't we can loose sight of all that is important!

Vicky was able to make it to a session of general conference!  She loved it! She came to a member's home and loved it! She loves dogs a lot and probably payed more attention to them than to the prophet. But she came and felt the spirit and that is all that matters!

We got 2 more people on baptismal Date! Miracle from Heaven! In these next 3 months our mission has a goal to have 120 baptisms! Crazy right! Well I know we can all do it! I am so excited to be part of that! Oh and in other news the temple is getting so close to being finished! Ahhhhh I am so excited!

Well I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week! Here are some pictures to make you feel loved! 

Love Sister Hanson

This picture is for her sister Katie!!

Life!

Originally written on March 30, 2015

Allyson with Sister Lowry on a carousel at the Children's Center  

Life as a missionary is wild, surprising, challenging, and refreshing. Even though we have the same schedule everyday we experience the softest and loudest of feelings. We have ups and downs and there is no knowing when your plans will change. Some days we go out and have no success and other days we have the most. Life as a missionary is a hard but wonderful thing.

I don't have much to say this week. But I think that paragraph that I wrote kinda explains the week I had. It was a great but challenging week. We had lots of ups and downs. We had some investigators drop us. But it is okay. I have learned that the Lord prepares people and I have realized that those people are not ready yet. They have a long way to go and so do I.

Vicky is doing well. She is getting more and more ready for baptism! She still has some hurdles to get over but I know she has the right desires and she has friends in the ward which makes it even better! She will stay when the missionaries leave.

I have been reading the New Testament and it is great! You all should read about it! Especially with Easter coming! I love learning about Christ and all the things he did. The more I learn about him the better person I become. One of my favorite chapters is John 15! Go read it! It talks about the Atonement! 

I love being a missionary and love sharing the gospel. It has an impact on everything I do and how I want to live my life! Oh, and Women's Conference was wonderful! The family is the key to everything in this life! Without my family I would not be the person I am today! I love what Cheryl A. Esplin said " See it. Share it. Live it. Defend it." I will defend this gospel with everything I have in me!

I love you all! Have a grand week!

Pictures will be provided next week!

Love Sister Hanson