O ce veste minunată!!

 Crăciun Fericit Tuturor!! 

Gonna keep it shorter, but still wanted to give a little update this week!!

-Had a mission conference in Timișoara this week!! It was so fun to see all my friends from all over the country!! 

-Train on the way back got delayed and we were stuck for a few hours, but luckily we had cards and a bunch of missionaries, so it wasn't too bad.

-Decorated the church with one of our oldest members and it was so cute

-Our choir actually did pretty good at church!

-Had a branch party/meal after church and it was super fun and yummy!!!

That's about it!! We have lots of plans today and I'm excited for all the fun!! 

Vă iubesc and Merry Christmas!!!

-Sora Hansen

Just Ballin

Bună Bună!!

Highlights: 

-Surprise party for Sora Reynolds last p-day!! It was full of rainbows, unicorns, ice skating and of course SUGAR! Super fun.

-Had dinner with the Oanas. No not a family. Two ladies, both named Oana. Ones a member and another is a friend we recently had to stop teaching. The two had never really talked before but became instant friends, and we are so happy!!

-Went to Ploiești this week with Sora Fowler! We visited the Sisters there, did a fire language study, visited a member who is like a crocheting pro, and headed out!! 

-This amazing American family, the Hyers, invited us over for dinner for Sora Reynolds' birthday. It was so gas, we had mexican food. (I literally miss mexican food so much). But the best part of the night was that they had also invited our friend Oana as well! We hadn't told them we met with her this week but the Lord is good! For our spiritual thought at the end, we decided to read Moroni 7. It was so amazing we went through the whole chapter, and shared our thoughts/comments and Oana probably shared the most! The spirit was so strong!

- Lesson with our friend Sara!! We started reading the Book of Mormon with her and this week went over chapters 1-3 in 1 Nephi. So many good thoughts, and I just love Sara she's such a light!

-Exchange in Brașov! I had a super fun time getting to know Sora Brown and learning from her (and got to hangout with my homie Sora Ballard)!! We had a packed day with visits and lessons and the cherry on top was that Brașov's games night is on Friday's and guess what they do????? They meet at a turf field and play soccer. I was literally in heaven. My lungs were definitely about to give out after like 2 minutes of playing, but it was so worth it. 

-We made a goal to amp up our games night here earlier in the week and decided to try out Human Foosball, It was a hit!!

Funny:

-Choir practice again Sunday. Let's just say we're a ragtag bunch. We have an american family of singers, our sweet member from Africa whose trying to carry the alto section (sometimes by basically screaming but it's all good), a handful of Romanian members who barely can sing the Romanian hymn, let alone the english one, and us missionaries who are trying our best (and sometimes that just means trying our best not to laugh) but hey you know I think our musical level exceeds that of a primary program, and they bring the spirit (but they are also a lot cuter than us so idk honestly they probably have us beat). But I'm excited for next week!

Gând Spiritual:

- "This call to be meek and lowly of heart—one of the few descriptions the Lord gave of Himself—that He was meek and lowly of heart—is a call to all of us as His disciples. If we can live this way, He says, we will find rest to our souls and we will discover that His yoke is easy, that His burden is light." 

Sister Patricia Holland

Sora Brown and I read this talk to prep for our exchange and I loved the insight she shared with me. She has been studying meekness, and what it actually means. We use the term so different now, but to be meek does not mean a lack of power, but to have great power and control over it. I love this definition with this thought, because becoming a follower of Christ does take away our power, but instead it helps us control it, which in the end gives us more power. 

Vă Iubesc și vă doresc un crăciunul atât de fericit!!!

Sora Hansen

 

Goons of Christmas Past (Or Misson past)

Bună Bună!!!

Highlights:

-Super fun sport p-day with all the Buc missionaries last week, then food at the mall and the Christmas market, can't complain. 

-First Tuesday meetings!!! We first had a meeting with our whole mission, and then with the trainers and their trainees. Then we had a meeting with the APs and Fowlers. Super cool!! Trying to plan some upcoming fun! Then we got ciorba (soup)!

-Hit up Galați this week!! And my girl SORA POST (my mtc comp). We went with Sora Fowler and did a little mini exchange there for a few hours. I actually exchanged with Sora Greer, and I was so excited to get to know her better because I've never served around her or really met her (most missionaries in my mission know each other because its not too big). Did some streeting, block knocking, got some cool tats from Sora Post, put her in a headlock and said goodbye! Super fun day!

-Got some snow this week!! It only stuck for like a day but it was perfect packing snow, so you already know had a snowball locked and loaded for Sora Reynolds. Our whole district actually happened to be at the church, so we had an epic snowball fight, 

-Met with our friend Sara! She is seriously the coolest. She is 17 and has already been taught all the lessons, but can't get baptized at the moment. We meet up with her to talk and share a spiritual thought. She also expressed interest in learning more about the prophets and stories from the Book of Mormon, so we are going to read it with her every week from start to finish and help her understand!! We are so excited!!

- Went over to the Brinarus and had some banger food. Fratele (brother) Brinaru is also hilarious and had us all cackling with his out-of-pocket comments. 

-Went on an Exchange with regina mea, Sora Reynolds. It was so fun to have a day with her. We went crazy finding and had fun reliving our time together as companions. (and normal we at way too many sweets) And visiting with her and Sora Post this week was like a mtc throwback! (Just missing Sora Dabsss but I'm sure we'll get around to seeing her!!)

-On our exchange we went to visit Sora Stoica!! She is so sweet and fed us sooo good!! She also told us all about her coming to the church and then wandered into many other stories including her tango dancing talent. 

-Went to a public speaking event that Sara is a part of. She wasn't able to make it but it was still so awesome!! There were young adults from all over the world who all spoke english. We read together a prompt, discussed it and then each group elected someone to go up and present the groups opinions. It was so cool! Everyone there was so open and we got lots of contacts!

-Had games night again!! Super fun!!

-Church was solid and we got drafted into the choir... we'll see how that goes haha. 

-SO MUCH LUCA!!! YESS!!!!

Not-so-Highlights:

-Had to work on ordering some church pass-along cards. The ordering system is so Romanian (Inefficient). It took several attempts and 4 hours and we thought we had it done. But then we ended up having to do more and it only took and hour and half that time haha. Hopefully everything works out. 

-Had a friend super excited to come to church and made plans on saturday to meet with them Sunday morning and walk together to church , but when we left the house early to go and meet them, they weren't there. Called and they then informed us they wouldn't make it. (CLASSIC) 

Gând Spiritual:

Listened to the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional this week and I liked this quote from Sister Brownings talk

"God gives us the gift of remembrance so we do not forget the Giver, so that we come to feel His limitless love for us and learn to love Him in return."

I love how she talks about remembrance as a gift. Because it truly is. and it reminds me of the promise we make at baptism to "always remember Him". And while we may think that this is Jesus, because we should never forget what he, it is more for us. Because Heavenly Father and Jesus know that the more we remember and turn to them, the more they can bless us, and we can feel their love! So please remember them as you continue in Christmas festivities this week!!! 

Vă iubesc și Crăciun Fericit!!!

Sora Hansen

 

Whirlwind

 Bună Bună!!

Highlights:

- Last time teaching Sorin and his family in Arad. It was so sweet, and they were so sad to see me go, and I was so sad to leave them... ugghhhhhh. But they still were just so open to everything we taught and had so many good questions. And Sorin was so awesome he really wanted to make sure his kids understood what we were teaching and frequently checked in on them to see. 

-Train to București wasn't too bad, and we were able to get my bags through the subway here, so that was really nice.

-First day here Sora Barnett and I just tagged along with Sora Nunez and Sora Wolsey. It was fun! and then we also had the time to set up some lessons and things in Arad and do some contacting there.

-Departing missionary day was so fun! We helped out coordinating all their activities and got to visit with them. I think the part I enjoyed most about it though is that while we went and did everything with them, I realized how glad I was that I wasn't in their shoes and that I still have time here!! I love being a missionary so much!

-Next day was Ziua României. It is Romanians independence day, and lets just say they know how to party. Let's just say there was, cool presentations, testimonies, a grătar, hype music and a mosh pit with our mission president??? Let's just say it was a blast. Then we went and picked up the new boboci (new missionaries) from the airport. We had a traditional romanian dinner (sarmale, mamaliga and papanași) It was so good. We also had another dance party at the restaurant doing a traditional romanian dance. 

-Saturday we helped coordinating all the meetings with the boboci, and assigning them to their trainers. We then walked with them to the park and after got Luca!! I literally am so excited to eat an unearthly amount of Luca this transfer. Then we went to games night and it was so fun!! We had a couple friends there that just didn't seem to understand how the games worked, even after many explanations. But in the end it made for some good laughs so no worries. 

- Church on Sunday was also super fun! But just super different. So many people! I'm excited to get to know all of them. I also got see the Brînarus again. They are a couple from the Craiova branch (my training city). They actually go back and forth between the two branches and were so exctied to see me!! They also invited us over to their house Thursday!! So excited!

-We had a few meetings after church and then had only an hour and half for finding. Right now it is a goal in our mission to contact 70 people a day, so Sora Wolsey and I still wanted to try and make that happen. We went out metro (subway) finding and literally talked to every single person we saw. We ended up exceeding our goal, we contacted 86 people. After that we had 4 hours of meetings and headed home. 

-Found out that Sorin and his family made it to church in Arad and I am beyond excited for that!!! Please keep them in your prayers! I feel like they are so prepared.

Not-so-Highlights

-Leaving Arad, as excited as I was to come serve in Buc, saying goodbye to all our friends there was so hard. 

-Leaving my baby!! I know she is going to amazing but it was a sad goodbye!!

Funny/crazish/i dont even know:

- Friday night we were just getting in bed when the phone rings, because we forgot to tell our District Leader we were home safe. He told us that the other sisters hadn't answered, and he had called 5 times. We tried them too and nothing. We get on the phone with the APs and they call president. They asked us to go over and check on them. We uber over and are joking about how they are probably just asleep. We get to their door. No answer. We ring a few more times. No answer. We pound on the door, and hold down the doorbell for literally 2 minutes straight. No answer. Crap. We call back the APs and Pres and start lowkey freaking out, cause what are we supposed to do in they are lost in the massive city. Luckily about a minute or two later we hear the lock start moving and wooofh they were ok. Just woken out of a very deep sleep. 

-Walked into church and before anyone even said hi to me I got roasted by 3 babas (old ladies) for not wearing tights... my bad guys, I'll do better next week 🙈

Gând Spiritual:

"We can distinguish more clearly between divine discontent and the devil’s dissonance, between dissatisfaction with self and disdain for self. We need the first and must shun the second, remembering that when conscience calls to us from the next ridge, it is not solely to scold but also to beckon."

-Elder Neal A. Maxwell 

Read this talk this week and I this last line of this quote. I feel like I sometimes forget that the Lord is literally routing for us, He doesn't want to tear us down, in fact any correction given is always for our benefit. We wants us to succeed and is sitting their with a checklist just ready to point out every fault we have. His guidance is always full of love and there as encouragement. This is good to remember when correcting others, but equally important when correcting ourselves. 

Vă iubim!!

Sora Hansen

Pa Pa 👋 to the Boonies

 Bună Bună!!! 

Highlights:

- Exchange in Oradea!!! I got to exchange with Sora Reeve!! She has so much enthusiasm for the work and we had such a fun day together!!! Also got to meet and talk with a member there in Oradea, her name is Sora Geambasu. She is so cool. She is a language wiz, served a mission, translator for the church, a convert to the church and apparently really likes me despite the fact we've only meet in person like 3 times. Hey I'm not complaining though, she's awesome!

- Went to Sora Lidia's again this week!! It was on Thanksgiving too so that was a bonus. (She did not know it was Thanksgiving haha). She fed us amazing food (normal), and there was enough for it to feel like Thanksgiving.

- Later that day we also decided to try a restaurant someone told me about on the tramvai one day. The have super cheap papanași (papanași is basically like a donut with this cream and berry sauce on it, so good). We went and they also had super cheap Shaorma so you know we had to try it. The Shaorma was so gas. The sauce was actually spicy (ish) !! The papanași however did not wow me too much, but it was only 6 lei ($1.50) so ehh, no worries. 

- Friday night the STLs came to Arad for our district activity the next day and we had a Waffle party!!! It was so good!! 

-Our district activity was amazing!! We went to this sat (village) and helped with the renovation of this old school to be a cultural hall. At first they only let the girls cleanup... but after about an hour and a half of us sweeping, there wasn't much left. So we just asked the Elders to show us how to help and went crazy. We had a fire lunch there (șnițel and fries) and then Sora Barnett and I worked outside moving wood and trying to clean cement off of tiles. 

- I played a musical number in church (Gethsemane) and it actually went pretty good despite my hands literally shaking through the entire first verse.

Not-so-Highlights:

- We weren't able to meet with any the people we wanted to this week. We even went to our families house for a lesson, and waited and no one answered. Then an hour later they told us they weren't home. 

MIRACLE:

- Last Pday we get into this crowded tramvai, and I mean crowded. We were like sardines in a can. Basically we ride all the way to our stop get off and I put my hand in my pocket... my wallet is gone. I was freaking out. It had everything in it: my permis (visa to live in the country), my credit cards, my American drivers license, insurance card, and even my tramvai pass. I was so frustrated that I had allowed that to happen like how did I not think twice while on the crowded tramvai? Well I called all the people I needed to cancel my cards and then there wasn't much else I could do and the frustrated me even more. Amidst all of this one of the Elders suggested we pray. My first internal reaction was no absolutely not, I'm too angry to pray right now, but immediately after that was a humbling thought, then I definitely need to pray right now. We prayed and went about the rest of our pday. Right when we start our working hours we get a call. It's the police here Arad, they had my wallet!!! So we traveled all the way across town and when I got there, everything was there. The only thing the thief took was my cash and they left the rest 😱 I'm so thankful for the Elder who prompted us to pray, and that the Lord was and is truly aware of me. 

And last but certainly not least... TRANSFERS!!!! 

- We got transfer calls on Saturday and I'm heading to București and have been given the assignment as Sister Training Leader Leader (I know it's a bit of a mouth full haha) so basically I get to work with Președintele and Sora Fowler and the APs and help train our STLs (Sister Training Leaders). I am beyond excited for this call, and so grateful for the opportunity! Plus you know how I talked about that awesome sister I went on an exchange with last week, Sora Wolsey? Well she's going to be my companion!! So excited!!

Oh yeah and I almost forgot, guess who's also getting transfered to the same branch as me??? Well only THE Sora Reynolds (my last comp)!!!! So for any of you that thought our shenanigans were finished buckle in cause it's gonna be a fun next few transfers. 

Gând Spiritual:

-"You will never be happier than you are grateful"

  -Elder Gary B. Sabin

We shared this quote this week to Sora Lidia for Thanksgiving. I know this is so true. I have met many people who circumstances aren't great. But they are so grateful and have so much faith that the Lord has had a hand in their lives. And it has truly humbled me and I realized that I have no excuses. I need to stop complaining and be grateful!! And the best part is, is that we can almost immediately become happier!

Sorry for the long email!! But I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!! If you have any questions or just want to give me a life update I would love to hear!!! 

Vă iubesc!!

Sora Hansen