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