Heat Wave in Terre Haute

Originally sent September 8, 2015

Destiny and me after church in the car riding home!

As you can tell this week was hotter than you can imagine. But even though it was hot we still had fun! Since it was so hot we went and got a lot of frozen yogurt! Which is the best thing to get on a hot day! Oh, and we also went to this wonderful place called J Gumbos! Oh man, that place is wonderful! They serve Cajun style food! It is to die for! Tastes like what i would imagine as Louisiana (Chelsie B) cooking to its finest!

DESTINY is doing great! She is so ready to get baptized!!!!!!!! We have been talking to her and telling her all about how her baptism is going to go! She is ready to be baptized and she finally came to church on Sunday! She even fasted! Which was so cool. She loved Fast and Testimony meeting! She was sad when Sacrament meeting came to an end! OH and what is way funny is she already thinks she is a Mormon! She tells her family all the time " I can't I'm Mormon". The other day we go over to teach her about Tithing and she has hot chocolate. hahaha She said she was going through "Coffee withdrawals" haha.

We have been having a lot of fun teaching the restoration on campus! We have found 2 people that are curious about our church and they are both very nice and listen with intent! I have learned a lot of new ways to teach while being on campus and I feel like have have been sent here to learn how to be a better teacher! I love being on ISU.

Here is a picture of us and the ISU elders at the Alpaca Farm we do service at! It was early in the morning! The other picture is of me and Destiny after church in the car riding home!

Us and the ISU elders at the Alpaca Farm

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

Love Sister Hanson

The busiest week ever

Originally sent on August 31, 2015

We helped some members do a chalk drawing!

So as you can tell by the title I had a busy week! We talked to so many people on campus. Here are some random things that we did this week. First off I went to a bible study on campus that one of the elder's investigators invited us to! I got really confused during it, so I had to go home and study more about the things we talked about. It's hard to be a missionary sometimes. hahaha.

Cool thing that happened this week. We were going to a member's house to eat dinner. And mind you, I don't know anyone here! hahah. (by the way, she had to pick us up because we don't have a car) So, we had the best dinner with her! We planned a lesson about prayer and it was exactly what she needed! I love planning and having the Spirit! Things just work out. But anyways, back to the story.  She was nervous for the missionaries because she has never had missionaries over before. We had a wonderful time. She was a convert a long time ago and she is just coming back to church! It is amazing what the Spirit can do! So we talked about how she is working on going to the temple soon! Hopefully we get to go with her to do baptisms!!!! So many miracles have happened because of the temple!

Alright, so we have been teaching Destiny a lot this week. We have taught her all the make or break lessons. Such as the Law of Chastity and The Word of Wisdom! She has committed to live them. Her mom does not like Mormons, but Destiny still wants to be a Mormon! She is black and has a crazy personality! I love her. She is doing pretty well other than not coming to church. Man, she was in Indy with her mom! Oh well, next week she will come and then get baptized in 2 weeks which is the last week of the transfer! Hopefully everything works out!

The last thing we did this week that was fun and you guys would be interested in reading about is we went to the downtown Terre Haute block party! We helped some members do a chalk drawing! OH my that was fun!!!! I will send some pictures!

In ward council this week and 3rd hour we have been talking about the Sabbath day! It is so important! Go look up Doctrine and Covenants 59:9-10! It talks about how we should keep ourselves unspotted from the world! The Sabbath is truly a day to rest from our labors and pay our devotions to God! We should be doing things that are pleasing to him and make that day truly a delight.

Well, I love you all and hope you have a great day.

Love Sister Hanson

Crazy Week!

Allyson with Sister Cleveland, the mission president's wife

Well this week has been crazy! From moving apartments to not having a car and teaching like crazy! This week has been a good one full of the Spirit and all good things about the temple! We had the temple dedication on Sunday and it was an amazing experience! I love the temple and I am so excited to go do some of my ancestor's work! We also got to watch the temple celebration! That had a spirit all of its own! It was wonderful! I am so excited that Indiana has a temple now! It has already brought so many miracles with it!

This week we got to teach Destiny! Destiny has been doing so well! We taught her the Plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ! She has been soaking it up! She is in the process of picking a baptismal date this week! We met with her 3 times last week. On Saturday she told us she wanted to come to church. Too bad only members can go to the dedication.... But she is coming next week. She has a strong desire to be baptized! So I am just way excited I get to be a part of her life at this time! Her mom is not too keen on her going to church, but she wants to do it! She has so much faith! I am so amazed that she has been so prepared to receive the gospel. She told us that she was going to go to a party but then she felt like she needed to go home. So she did! It is amazing to see how close to the Spirit she is! I am just so excited I get to help her come to baptism! Oh and she really wants to go to the temple too!

We have been doing a lot of finding on campus! So that is always fun! School just started on Wednesday! So campus is always packed with people! It is so great, but sometimes I have no clue who to talk to. There are just so many people! I love it! 

I love you all and have a great week! The scripture this week is Mosiah 23:21-23. This one talks about why we have bad things happen to us! Oh, and Moroni 7:44-47 talks about charity! Enjoy!

Love Sister Hanson

Allyson's new address:

101 Locust St., Apt 9
Terre Haute, IN 47807
 

The crew at the local Dairy Queen

Elder Bair with his shirt on backwards

Transfers!

Allyson by a cool sign!

So crazy things have happened this week! First off I got transferred to Wabash 1.2 (aka Terre Haute)! I am now serving on Indiana State University campus! Crazy! We don't even have a branch for the YSA yet, but we do have lots of fun with them. We go to institute on Tuesdays, have FHE on Sundays, and sports/game night on Fridays! So we have fun! But we work hard. School will be starting for them on Wednesday. But we have had a lot of people moving in so we have talked to lots of people! Everyone in the YSA is willing to come with us to lessons so that is great too! We are on campus most of the time just PCing. 

Allyson with her new companion Simmons

Second off I am half training. So I went from training to training. What a surprise! hahaha Her name is Sister Simmons and she has been out 6 weeks. She is 19. She is from Alpine, Utah. She went to Utah State for a year before she came out. If you want more info let me know!

This week all I have done is personal contact into people on campus. It is so difficult to stop people and talk to them about the gospel. But I am working on my skills! This week I have met Brit. She was baptized in May but she is already less active so we are working with her to get her to come back to church. We have one girl her name is Destiny and she wants to get baptized and I just met her yesterday! (oh yeah just a fun fact a lot of people that we do teach are black! My dream has come true!) Destiny is great. She has a desire to be baptized and now we just need to get her to come to church.

Yesterday we did a fun service project! We were crew leaders for this bike park project! We dug trails for bikes and we cleared what seemed like forests of branches! Then the people that had us volunteer for the service took us out to lunch! 

The members from the Wabash Ward feed us so we have lots of fun with them! Oh and I have to say this area is a lot like my first area! Every one here is a Hoosier!  I love Hoosiers! This is not a rich area but in this area rich do live here. So you have your choice of where you can go to contact people! The area is very diverse with all different ethnic groups! So that is one thing that I do love about Terre Haute.

Well if you have any other questions let me know I can answer them!

Ohhhh one thing I learned about this week was the work sanctify! Sanctify means to consecrate! So if you go deeper into that it means you are literally dedicating yourself to the Lord! Whoa. Think about that when you are taking the Sacrament! Also our transfer scripture is Enos 1:12 which says:

12 And it came to pass that after I had prayed and labored with all diligence, the Lord said unto me: I will grant thee according to thy desires because of thy faith.

I love that because Enos had struggled for so long with all of these burdens and he was now able to feel comfort because he had done what he need to! Jesus Christ the Lord gave him what he needed in his time of need! If we have righteous desires and faith that those things can come to pass then Jesus Christ can help us with anything. Even if it is a hard class in school!

I love you all and hope you find strength in the scriptures!

Love Sister Hanson

Her new district

Cool sock tan

End of a Wonderful Open House on to a New Adventure!

Here is a picture of me and Sister Richardson

**Original post was 10 Aug 2015**

Well It makes me sad to say it but the temple open house is over... tear. But good news is, is that now we get to look forward to the dedication and the temple celebration!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This week has been pretty great! We got to work at the temple open house on Thursday evening and Friday and Sa
aturday! Great way to end the open house!

One miracle that happened (as dad already mentioned in his email to me) is that I met some people from Shelley, Idaho. I have no clue why they are here but it was fun to talk to them! Another Miracle that happened is that I got to meet lots of people that live in our area that came to the temple open house! What are the chances that we met each other! I am not sure if they are interested in learning more but they know that the missionaries that live in their area are real people.

Well these past few weeks have been strange but lots of fun! I have been learning a lot about myself and things I need to work on to become a better person! I have been learning a lot about humility! Wow, I love learning about it! I have learned that without humility you can't have the Spirit! Having the Spirit is so essential in missionary work. Humility is also helpful in submitting your will to the Father. Humility is something that when you have it God is more likely to use you as his instrument! Being an instrument in the Lord's hand is the best thing and it brings you closer to God and can help you find your purpose in life because you are submitting your will to God.

Well I love you all! Have a great week! I will be getting transferred to an new area with a new companion!

Love Sister Hanson!

Allyson with Jenn Cannon from Shelley Idaho at the Indianapolis Temple Open House.
She is good friends with Bryce, Allyson's Uncle.

My Weekly Temple Update! haha

Us at the temple.

This week! We were at the temple! Not only did we get to work there! But we got to bring some recent converts to the temple! We brought Jxxx! Jxxx was baptized about 8 months ago and still struggles with the word of wisdom! But she knows the gospel is true! I think since she got to go to the temple and look inside it will help her out a lot with where she wants to go! I know now she wants to go to the temple! I think she has more motivation to break those bad habits because she has something to look forward to! I am so grateful for the temple! It has brought so many people from everywhere! 

Here are some stats! We were only expecting about 6 thousand people this Saturday! But if you can guess we got a lot more than we expected! We got 8 thousand people! The temple open house has been beyond busy! I have talked to so many people! I see faces of people that have been tour guides, in our groups to go on tours and I recognize them but I have no clue where I have seen them! haha. I think I might be losing my mind just a little bit.

Another miracle this week! We eat dinner at members houses as you know! Yesterday we had a wonderful lesson with them! Then they started telling us about all their temple miracles! So many have happened with just them! I can't imagine how many miracles with all the other members have happened. This temple is building all of the members in Indiana! It has changed hearts and the missionary work in Indiana!

This week was so busy that I didn't get to take many pictures but next week I will take a lot of them okay! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love Sister Hanson

Miracles Everywhere!

Me at the photo booth at the temple!

Sorry this is so late. We were on vacation last week and I didn't get this week's letter posted. 

Original date: July 27, 2015

This week was great! We had members taking us out all week! We were able to talk to so many people about the temple this week! We found a new way to talk to people also! So in Indiana there is these things called garage sales! They are so big here! So we decided to go so we could find some clothes for cheap and talk to a lot of people about the temple! I decided to invite a lady that was running the garage sale at this one house! She had christian music on so I thought it would be a good idea! I invited her after I had bought something! She was so grateful that I did then she asked if the temple had been advertised on TV. I was not sure because you know as missionaries we do not watch TV. haha

This week we also got to work at the temple! It was amazing! I got to talk to so many people that were not members. Most everyone that came to the temple loved it and were so excited to be there. Especially the people in Carmel. They are so glad that the temple is having an open house! We had a lot of huge groups of non members too! We had a group of Scouts that came through and they were all non-members. We had a group that we got to present to that was Jewish and they are a very rich family around this area!

This week we also got to teach Katrine! She is from Africa! We taught them a little while ago! She is trying to get her green card and so is her husband John. We asked her if the missionaries had contacted him yet. She said he hasn't told her anything yet. But we hope and pray that he will be able to talk to the missionaries there! She will be coming to church next week! We are so excited!

Well I love you all! Hope you have a great week!

Love 

Sister Hanson

Us at this cool orchard called Anderson Orchard! We got these wonderful Apple Cider Slushies! Mmmmm they were great!