Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hi everyone!!!!

Life is good here in Indianapolis!!! The weather is getting quite cold but we can bear it!!! We still tract even though it is cold!!!

Debbie!!! She walks!!! So what really happened was we went to go and visit her on Tuesday and she told us she had been fasting for 2 days so that she could walk and go to her mom's funeral. This is all because she was reading about Enos in the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon really does have all the answers to the questions we might have. Debbie is now in Mississippi and will be coming back shortly to finish her recovery and finish learning about the church and get baptized!!!!

I spoke at a baptism about the holy ghost. The senior couple in our ward helped get a less active family active again and they asked me and Sister Sowards to speak. Chad is 8 years old and his baptism went well!!! So I got a bear for him (Chad) and read a song called the Holy Ghost.

Ronn is still progressing. We had a wonderful lesson with him about Personal Revelation and we brought the bishop! The bishop really wanted to meet him because he cannot come to church yet. At the end of the lesson Ronn told us that he needs to pray more. hahaha We read the story of Enos with him. Ronn is doing so great he reads the BOM all the time and prays a lot but I think this lesson helped him realize he needs his own testimony!!!!

We had Zone Conference this week! It was a revalatory experience! I think as I keep going on my mission I find more and more things I need to improve on! People say I am a seasoned missionary, but really I am just beginning! Meetings on a mission just bring you closer to the Savior and help you learn how to become a better missionary. I have looked back at those notes a lot since we had zone conference.

Allyson with Sister Sowards

Transfers AGAIN...

Allyson and Sister Sowards

I feel like I just got a new companion like 2 weeks ago and now it is transfers again. hahahaha

My new companion is from Salt Lake City, Utah. She has been out 3 months and her name is Sister Sowards! Yes you say it like sour-ds. ahha I am now serving in the INDY 1st ward!!! Love it here.  We teach English to refugees Burma. and We also teach regular English people. The ward members help out a lot!!! Love all of them!

Here is an overview of who we are teaching. We are working with one of the member's mom. She is from Mississippi! and she is so funny. She can't come to church because she fell down the stairs and broke her pelvis! So we go and visit her and teach her the lessons! She wants to be a Mormon!!! So she is way funny too since she is from the south! Debbie usually says in every lesson "I don't do stupid people"! Makes me laugh every time!

We are teaching Ronn. They tracted into Ronn. He has a unique story. He is 72 now but when he was 17 before joining the army he took some lessons from missionaries. He had to declare a religion when he join the army so he put LDS. Wow. So they found him a couple of weeks ago and we have been teaching him. He wants to get baptized too, but he has to go through cancer treatments and can't come to church until February! So it is not fun with those 2 and church but they both (Ronn and Debbie)(not related in any way) want to be baptized!!!!

And we are also teaching a bunch of Chin people ahah! we teach them English then we read out of the pamphlets and I will have to get a picture of one of the cards we use so you can see how they work! In this area when we go tracting we run into a lot of Chin people!

I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

Sister Hanson

These five people were all in a musical number on Sunday at a fire side. We sang in a quartet and the girl with the blond hair Sister Doyle played the piano.

The Week I Left Terre Haute....

Allyson with the Weeks family (top)  Most of the YSA Branch members on Indiana State University (bottom)

This week is a bittersweet week. I am sad to leave Terre Haute and I thought I was leaving my wonderful companion Sister Tanner here with all the people we had been teaching. But nope, that did not happen.... She is leaving too. Sad.

So let me just tell you about all the wonderful things that have happened this week! First of all Sister Tanner is cured! She now can walk on both of her feet!!! Hallelujah!!!! The weather is getting a bit chilly but just enough for a light jacket. Oh, and all the leaves went pretty then out of the blue they all fell off haha!

So we taught on Sunday (which was yesterday!) we taught this really cute couple Clayborn and Maraih! They both don't have a church and they are going to ISU. They both have had experiences with God that they cannot deny and they are just trying to see where God fits in their life. So we got to teach them the Restoration this week! That was a good last lesson for me and Sister Tanner BTW. We gave them a BOM and committed them the read the introduction. haha I hope they keep learning the with new Sisters that come to replace us!

Okay! We taught Arinze this week! He is doing good. Hopefully he won't freak out when we tell him we are both leaving. And hopefully he will not stop meeting with the missionaries if we leave. But it is all in the Lord's hands. We gave him our search for happiness and he read all of it in a week. So i think he is very interested in the church! haha But all is well.

Cool thing we did this week. We have some family history missionaries (old couple) in our ward. We went to help them with digitizing documents! That was good fun! We were unfolding documents that were from the early 1900s! I always have enjoyed family history! They do this 5 days a week from 8 to 4. So 8 hours a day! Crazy! I was glad I got to help them. They were actually featured on lds.org a couple weeks ago! Back to unfolding documents. They had coal dust on them so our hands were black after 2 hours and we were unfolding the documents that they fill in after you die. So that was wonderful!!!

Well hope you have a great week. I will too! I promise! haha
Love Sister Hanson

 A cool Cathedral at Saint-Mary of the Woods

Your Weekly Update from Indiana

Sister Hanson with her hobbled companion Sister Tanner

This week was filled with so many things I have no clue what to write like always!!!! I have been having such a great time just talking to people on campus about their beliefs! So many people are willing to talk to the missionaries! I just have enjoyed being a missionary on campus because young people are willing to try out new things!!!

 

This week I went on exchanges with Sister Kitchen!!! Those were way fun. We talked to a bunch of people but so far none of them have become new investigators. But no worries, we are going to find teach and baptize the whole campus! haha If only I had BOM missionaries and go on a mission for like 18 years! hahaha

We have been teaching a guy named Arinze! He has been doing good! Keeping his commitments and he even came to the ward Halloween party. And he came to church this Sunday! He has been analyzing the gospel but now we are trying to help him see the gospel from a spiritual side! He has been reading the BOM and he always has questions of the different things that he reads! 

I know the BOM is the word of God and I know by applying it to your life is when you find that lasting conversion. It seems these days the world is getting a lot more wicked and there are only 2 choices. You either go with the world's way or God's way. I choose God. He is the one who will protect us from the things of the world. His ways are always higher than our ways. We must step up or we will fall! We need everyday conversion and that will come from reading your scriptures and praying with a sincere heart!!!!

I hope you all have a great week! I know this church is true. Sorry for the short letter! haha

Love Sister Hanson

Sister Hanson with Sister Kitchen on exchanges

Bon Fires and Fall!

Allyson with her missionary buds.

Okay so first I just wanted to share my ponderizing scripture this week!!!! I just love this one a lot. It was part of a talk that Elder Holland gave a couple conferences ago! Mosiah 4:19

" For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food an raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind? "

So the reason why I liked this scripture is because it reminds me that God has given me everything. When we look to God for everything we need we are truly being humble. Humility is a Christ-like attribute that brings you to look outward and care for others rather than yourself. One way that we can all be more humble is just the simple action of thanking God and anyone who gives you anything!

This week was pretty uneventful other than the fact that we went over to the stake presidents house for a huge bon fire with like 200 other people there! So that was a great fun thing! OH and they roasted a pig so we had some good BBQ.

This week we taught Clayborn! We taught him about the plan of salvation! I think that is my favorite lesson to teach just because it shows how much God really does love us! While we were teaching him the Spirit was so strong and it is just one of those times where you cannot deny that the plan is true! He had so many questions but at the same time I think a lot of things are starting to make sense to him!

We taught so many people this week that it is hard to remember the things I did!

This past General Conference was so inspiring i hope to keep it in my heart through out the rest of the year! I know the leaders and the Prophet are truly inspired and they do talk to God! They know what the world needs right now and they have the spirit of God in them!

Here are some pictures from the Bon Fire/ Pig Roast!

Love you all and hope you have a good week! 

Love Sister Hanson

At the bon fire (pre fire).

The Phone Call!

Me with some alpacas.

Originally sent October 5, 2015

I call this the phone call not because of that funny 80s seminary video that we all enjoyed during high school! Haha I call this the phone call because the other night while we were planning for the next day we got a phone call! Pause for effect! This lady named Martha was on the other line. She talked to us for a while about everything and anything! haha She is a sweet lady. Then we set up an appointment to meet with her! To continue the story we met with her on Friday and it was a great meeting. Turns out she is in her 60s and she has met with missionaries before. We got to the lesson and she told us she read the RESTORATION pamphlet before she met with us. Talk about being prepared. Before the visit we decided we would talk about the restoration. But during the visit everything that came out of me and Sister Tanner's mouths was about the Plan of Salvation. So we gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and committed her to read it and pray about it. She knows a couple members and so they will be great to fellowship her. We told her about General Conference. We invited her to come. She called us up on Sunday morning and asked if she could still come! She made it just on time and she loved it! She even took notes! This phone call was a miracle.

On other news like every other missionary out there. General Conference was a blast! I loved Elder Lawrence of the Seventy's talk! He really hit home. If you are ever wondering what you can do better just pray! I love that. I noticed that a lot of this General Conference was centered on the Spirit! If we are more spiritually connected then we will be better instruments in the Lord's hands! This week I will be trying to apply what I have learned from General Conference one little step at a time! First by just praying and listening to see what I can do to be better. Second PONDERIZE the scriptures this week! My scripture this week is 1 Samuel 16:7! This one just brings a lot of comfort to me! 

So I think I just have too much to tell about this week! I will just leave it at what I have! Have a great week! Love you all!

Sister Hanson

The wonderful sky here in Indiana

Transfers Again!

Originally sent September 28, 2015

Allyson with her new companion Sister Tanner

This week!!! I got my new companion! Sister Tanner! She is from Middleton, Idaho!!! She is 20 years old she is the oldest of 5 kids and has 4 brothers. We get along great and she has been out for 11 months! So, we are pretty close in mission age! haha We have had a lot of fun figuring out how to teach together and we just have a lot in common!

This week has been great! Destiny is still going through a hard time with her family. But she is keeping strong! We meet with her about 2x a week and just help her understand the gospel better than she has before. She didn't get to come to church this week because she was in Indianapolis but hopefully she will make it next week.

I felt like this week was a pretty good week but a pretty normal week also. We found this guy on campus this week. His name is Clayborn. He has had a rough life and doesn't know much about God. He wants to believe but "he knows not where to find it". We started teaching him the restoration lesson but we then decided to change and talk about the Plan of Salvation. He had so many questions about life. I wish I could help him so badly but he has to find out on his own. Clayborn is a very sincere person and just wants to find truth. We are going to teach him again and I hope the Spirit will touch him.

Collin is kind of iffy about joining the church and likes his religion. So we are working with him and making sure that he reads the BOM because that is where he is going to find his answer if he needs to be baptized.

Markanda, she is doing well. She prayed about a baptism date and we all decided on November 7th. She still wants to look around at other churches. So we are also helping her recognize her answers. Man I wish I could just pour out the Spirit on everyone I meet.

That is the struggle with campus. Most people meet with us a couple of times then decide it is not for them. So I am just trying to figure out how to help them understand the priesthood!

Well my spiritual thought today is one that comes from John 15:13. This verse simply explains what Jesus Christ has done for us! "greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends"! He has so much love for us that he would suffer on our behalf everything that everyone has and will ever go through. Not because he had to, but because he LOVES us.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.

Love Sister Hanson

Playing on the tracks!