STILL HERE

 Lil late, but better late than never. Soo this week puts us at 7 weeks as missionaries or something like that. The days feel so long but the weeks have kinda been flying by. Krew and Keegan left at the beginning of this week. It's kinda surreal with both of them gone because I became a missionary the same day as krew, and Keegan literally got here yesterday but they're both gone. I'm gonna miss seeing them for 2 years, but I'm excited to see how we change. This week was pretty sad but one happy thing is i found out andrews coming to the mtc, WOOO😊 He'll get here my last week of the mtc so i get to end off with a bang. The reason this week was sad is because elder huntsman got sent home for medical reasons this last wednesday. He's got to get a second neurologist to check him out so plz keep him in your prayers. If u havent noticed most of my emails funny stuff is about elder huntsman so if i dont have as much funny content ite cuz we've been missing him. His comp was elder helquist tho so now he's in a trio with us. Its different then the duo but in a good way.

Sunday was a great way to start the week. I've loved every GO and Do study time so far and this one was great. We had a new devotional at night, it honestly wasn't my favorite but I still took some good things away.

Tuesday we had another general authority devotional. I think it was honestly my favorite one so far. Karl D. Hirst of the 70 came and spoke to us with his Wife, Sister Hirst. They were both so funny and had great messages. Sister Hirst shared about how we should focus on the millimeters we know and not the mountain ahead of us. Elder Hirst talked about having cheer in situations where cheer isn't need, and he had an analogy I loved about stress. When glass undergoes stress it breaks and becomes less under pressure. When a cricket ball endures stress it might become bent and deformed, but it's resilient and bounces back. When a hammer undergoes pressure it breaks the cause of the pressure. It's robust. However, Heavenly father wants us to be better than these things. If we try, we can let stress have the same effect on us as it has on a muscle. When a muscle undergoes stress it breaks, but it comes back stronger than before. He had another great analogy, but I'll save it for one of my spiritual thoughts. 

Wednesday was the day Huntsman left so that was honestly just a sad day.

Friday is always the busiest day of my week. We had service in the morning, then quickly had to run and grab breakfast. After that we had our first Trio HOA, (Helping Others Appointment) so we had to run over to that. Then we had an hour of gym time and our personal and group language studies. And by that time our day was filled cuz we had our regular classes. Honestly tho having a busy day before Pday helps because it makes it come faster.

Today was a great day. We woke up at 6 a.m.so we could go do baptisms at the Provo City center temple. We were able to walk in and do baptisms, it was a great way to start the morning. Then we got back and went right to class, but we got to have one of our funnest classes today. We made a trip over to the mtc store to learn how to say more things in Thai that we might want to buy. Then we did a The Price is Right type game, but in Thai. I wasn't able to pull out a win, but it was probably one of the funnest lessons we've done. 

Funny stuff

-I feel like I gotta share one last thing about Elder Huntsman so even tho he gave this analogy in a testimony a few weeks ago I'm gonna include

Don't be a chimp, be a bonobo.

-Elder Giles from my district can eat a lot of ice cream. He also happens to be friends with Nathaniel who's here right now from Timpview. They decided to have an Ice cream sandwich eating competition and it was pretty funny. Once they got past 10 they were starting to feel cold, so you'd think they'd only get a few more. Somehow tho they were both at 22 ice cream sandwiches!! We ended up getting stopped by one of the workers tho because I guess your not supposed to eat like 40 ice cream sandwiches between two people. It was gonna end in a tie, but Than was willing to keep going outside and beat Giles by eating like 3/4 of another sandwich. Giles about died after that, but at least he doesn't eat a ton of ice cream now. He was def averaging like 3 ice cream sandwiches at lunch and dinner.

-Something that kinda surprised me, but is honestly pretty funny. I got surprised this morning with a picture of my sister and one of my friends (cough cough Jack). At first I was like oh that's cool they saw each other at Utah State. Then came the surprise when I realized they were holding a true aggie card with both their names on it. Haha it def caught me woke me up from my morning slump.

Thats about it

Here's some

I Want THAI FOOD

Another sad week down. It was actually really good, but Beckem just left this Wednesday. It's so weird that he's in the DR now. This week in class we've also been going over food, and OMY it looks so good. There's some mid stuff, but I'm so excited. It felt like at least daily there was something this week that made me want to be in Thailand sooo bad. I'm halfway tho so I'm making progress. The weeks go by really fast, but some of the days are long.

I don't remember a ton from the week, but the sunday devotional was good. We went to a different one because it's our fourth time so they've started repeating the big devotionals with everyone. It was good and it was way better than having to watch a repeat of a devotional we've already had. Tuesday was a super good and sad. Beckem flew out at like 5, but we also had a general authority devotional so that was cool. We didn't have night class and we came early so we got to sit in the front section. Gary E. Stevenson came and spoke to us. I love hearing from the Apostles, it's weird seeing them talk in person. Then we had to say goodybe to our english district. We were here when we they got here and then said goodbye to them on tuesday. Soo crazy.

Thursday was our First SYL day. SYL is speak your language and basically were supposed to try and go the whole day only speaking Thai with our district and the other Thai district. It was fun, but hard. We did pretty well tho, we got through like the first half of the day with only Thai, but around dinner we started speaking some English so I didn't overload. Solid day tho

Friday is my busiest day of the week. It's nice because I get to Pday faster, but it's also super tiring. We had service in the morning, and then we immediately had our first 25 minute fake lesson in Thai, and then we went to the gym, and then we had group language study, and then we had to do personal study and then it was lunch time which means we have classes for the rest of the day. We gotta a lot of stuff done, but I like having time in the morning to just chill for a lil bit, going from thing to thing is to busy for me. 

Oh yea I also almost forgot about the Presidential election. I didn't get to hear anything for it in the MTC so I basically just heard when it started and when it ended. Usually it's like a 2 day process but it felt like a one night thing here. I didn't vote cuz I never set up my thing so I can mail in my vote from the MTC. Probably should have but oh well. 

Funny stuff

-We went to the Provo City Center temple last Pday for baptisms. I just happened to see emily's roommate there which was so funny. I felt like I knew her, but I couldn't remember how until we started talking. It was nice to talk to someone from the outside world.

-One of the says in class this week Elder huntsman did something (I can't remember what he did) but he was trying to apologize to brother dolbin and accidentally said he hopes he dies. Hahaha it was so funny cuz lowk Elder huntsmans one of the ppl I could see saying that on purpose so it made it 10x funnier. 

Here's some photos

1 Month Down

 I have now been a missionary for over a month. It's weird because it feels like one of the fastest and slowest months at the same time. Sadly I still have a month more to go in the MTC so pray I don't go crazy🙏. This weeks been great tho. Keegan finally came to the MTC!!! Still as cute as I remember. Now I've got 3 friends here for just a lil bit before they all leave me to suffer by myself.

Started out the week strong on Sunday. As ZLs we have to plan the assignments for sacrament meeting. We didn't realize everything that entailed tho so we had some last minute assignments, but it worked out. It wasn't fast sunday either so the food wasn't quite as bad. Fast sundays are rough here. Later we had a devotional and district meeting that was really good. It was one of the most spiritual days of the MTC for me. And right after I finished the devotional and district meeting I got to listen to Braden and Keegan's talks so I was at a spiritual high.

The rest of the week has been pretty normal. Tuesday we had a devotional with a general authority. Elder Buckner and his wife came and spoke to us. I really liked the talk he gave. He talked about the Limhi and how they couldn't find Zarahemla even tho they prayed. But they did find a land of bones and plates. It wasn't the answer to their prayer, but if they hadn't found it we wouldn't have the book of Ether. Sometimes we might feel like we've just found a land of bones and old plates. We might not see the reason for it, but in the long run we'll be able to understand why it happened.

Also, HAPPY HALLOWEEN. It was pretty lame in the MTC, but I didn't expect much. Some people were creative with their costumes and had some funny ideas. 2 Elders in my district switched clothes and tags, and then a few of us just put a paper over our nametag with our teachers name. We just spammed the stuff he says in class like FOGAD or MAIPUD. I definitely missed being at home tho. Dressing up for real and going to stuff is sooo fun. It's gonna be really weird when I get to thailand tho cuz I'm gonna have my first sunny christmas.

The Thai is really hard but I'm finally getting a little bit of it. It feels like were just constantly blasted with words and I can't really tell how much I'm getting from it. Looking back tho I've learned so much. I'm semi competent at reading now if I go slow and I can make a few sentences I just don't have the vocabulary to say everything I want. Basically tho I'm screwed. We listened to a video from the Thailand facebook about a dude with a really cool story. He was lines we knew, but I could not tell. I guess he talked kind of fast, but I genuinely did not understand what he was saying. I think I understand a lil bit more about how its gonna be when I get there. I'm so excited to go tho and I'll I was thinking about during the video is how sick its gonna be when I finally go to Thailand.

Funny stuff
-I finally gotta play some ball with beckem and krew. I have a different schedule then them so I never get to go to the gym with them. It was soo fun, and I'm honestly surprised I'm not horrible at basketball after not playing for a while. The funny part tho is one of the elders tripped over himself while guarding me. He honestly kinda had me locked, but he was trying to get the ball to much or something and just ate it. I didn't even keep playing after that, but the loser was sooo piissed at me. He was kinda a crybaby. It worked out tho cuz he got up and called me a dush, but I passed it over to my 6'5" Elder Giles and he scored immediately sooo karma. I also found out he's krews ZL after which is even funnier.
-You can prolly guess what this one's about. Elder Huntsman does the funniest things, even when he has a freakin aneurysm. So basically he was having some bad headaches so he went to the doctor. They sent him out of the MTC to get an MRI cuz they were worried he had a bloodclot. They missed most of our afternoon class cuz they were there. Then during evening class him and his comp get called to the front desk. They got the results back and he had an aneurysm. All he texted tho was I had an aneursym no biggie, and I'm going to the ER. So we thought he was gonna have to get some brain surgery or something crazy, but I guess the blood clot they saw on the MRI was small and not in the brain so he's good. His headaches were from overexhaustion.

Extra pictures this week cuz I forgot to send some last week. Sorry Mom😊

Only 6 More To Go

 Hey Friends

This week was packed full of stuff, so I'm just gonna talk about whatever I remember.

Sunday was one of the chill days this week. The Go and Do personal study was good. Nothing too exciting. 

Monday was a lot of fun. We didn't have any workshops or group language study so we got to do our study times whenever we wanted. We went to the gym at a reasonable time too, so there wasn't a ton of people. Then we only had one class because we had a musical devotional. The devotional was done by the Bonner family. Idk how I haven't heard of the Bonner family before or I just didn't remember them, but I really liked the devotional. They're like crazy talented. It was really nice to have a change of pace and just listen to music for an hour. Also, they have some freakin crazy genes. The mom's like 71 years old and she was up there singing still. Idk how she's able to do it. I def would've guessed that she was like 60s max. And thennnn even crazier was when her youngest son said he had 6 kid!! He's prolly in his 40s, but if you had asked me how I old I thought he was it definitely would've been like low 20s. I was so surprised.

Tuesday was another packed day. We had more things in the morning, but we got another devotional at night, Brother Teixera and his wife came and spoke to us. He just spoke in last conference so I actually remembered his name. I was really tired, but I zoned in for the last half of devotional and I really liked it. He talked about how we are a seed that has been planted on a hill. We need to be an example and let our light shine to everyone. He talked about being a positive influence and the effect we can have. After the devotional we had a district review, and then a lot of the crazy stuff happened. Soo, this last tuesday night was the last night for the 2 thai districts above us and a few japanese districts. Our ZLs were in the japanese district so we new we were getting new ZLs. Anddd guess what, they called me and elder Runia after the district meeting. So we gotta lot of new responsibilities and things we have to do. Its actually way cool, other than I got to make sure I'm following all the rules cuz I'm the example now. With all the Elders gone its weird. Ethan left with the Japanese district so I don't have any friends from Home on my floor now. I didn't get to see him a lot, but its nice to have someone from home. He did hook me up with a mini fridge when he left tho so that was pretty sick. 

Other than that haven't done too much. Today was def the best pday so far. So basically we usually go to the temple at like 12:30. We showed up and instead of 3 busses there were only 2 and the next one wasn't gonna come for 30 minutes. Soooo instead we went to the provo city center. We took the bus over and did sealing and then walked back. It was actually the best to just be in the outside world. 

Funny stuff

-Elder huntsman gotta be my favorite part of the day. Thursday we were doing dinner service and elder huntsman was doing the barbecue sauce. Thenn he accidentally got some in his eyes and decided he was jus gonna cry it out instead of stop serving to get it out. And thennn even funnier was he burnt him hand and accidentally said motherfuuuuu. But he clutched and didn't say it. It was so funny

Love you all

It's freaking cold

 Wassup everyone 

So somehow I've been here over a week. All the days feel long but they jus blend together. I'm not gonna try go through what happened everyday cuz I already got them mixed up. 

Our first Sunday was a fast Sunday so that was rough. I don't mind fasting and I actually really liked sacrament meeting and the go and do study but after we did the 3 hour study sess I was starving. They we get done and go to dinner to eat cold pizza 😩.  I'm not gonna complain cuz everyone on Sundays is volunteering their time to give us food but after fasting all day it wasn't my first choice. 

Jump to Tuesday and we got an apostle for our devotional. It was UCHTORF. Idk who my favorite is but I def love hearing from him. It was super cool to hear him speak and it was nice to have a talk specifically for missionaries. He gave some good advice. Some ppl might think of him as jus some old dude, but they Def stupid and dumb cuz he had some great insights. One of my favorite things he touched on was controlling what u can control. U can't always control.how everything goes down but u can control how u react. There's 4 dif ways he talked about but to summarize, it was dope.

We've been playing lots of volleyball this week. I've never played with an indoor ball so it's actually way to fun. I've got a Lotta improvement tho cuz some ppl r crazy. Hopefully by week 7 I'll be a lil better.

Meals haven't been too bad. We had dinner duty tho on Thursday and then service Friday morning. That was tough. Lowk serving wasn't too bad tho cuz I did choices (its like cupbop mtc). Only downside was I couldn't talk to krew or beckem during meal time. They have dif schedules so only time I get to see them is sometimes during meal time 😟. I gotta talk to them for like a half an hour on Thursday and it was so niceeee. It's still feels like we jus have different classes in school or something. Seeing beckem leave will be weird

Funny stuff

-elder huntsman got no shame. He's the best. We're talking to president craig(branch president) and he asks if he can build a rocket cuz it's not specifically said in the handbook. Hahaha craig did not find it that funny. Thennnn, a few days later,  were talking to president craig and my comp elder runia was asking him abt his job and stuff. He told him he thought it was cool he was a professor and huntsman tells him he's got something brown on his nose. Half the district didn't get what he was saying but president craig totally did and didn't find it funny. And then huntsman tells him it means brown-noser and he's being a suck up. IN FRONT OF PRESIDENT CRAIG. Yea he told him that he was gonna have none of that. Huntsman still huntsman tho so he hasn't changed. He's so funny, it'd be so lame without him

Here's some photos from this week and last week

3 DAYS IN

Soo I've been here for 3 days now. It's weird writing my email even tho I just got here. So if I don't have much to write I'll do it next week.

 First day was kinda sad but I've kinda gotten used to classes now. Thankfully i was right next to krew in line so it helped get out of my sadness a lil faster. I got dropped at at 2 but by the time I got to my room I didn't have anytime to pack before my class. After that we had a nice long orientation but then Krew got sat right behind me so it was still fun. we got to go to dinner after. The foods honestly not that bad. It's def better than school lunch so I'm not complaining. We ended off the first day with the character of christ devotional. Lowk really good, it was 10x better than the orientation and I wasn't falling asleep the whole time. We met our roommates and they're way dope. They're going to Africa and speaking English so they leave soon but they're super fun and help me with all of my dumb questions.

Second day was busy but wasn't to bad. I got to see Beckem!! It's only been a week but it felt like I hadn't seen him for a while. I saw krew throughout the day seeing friends gives me a Lil bit of relief. Class feels kinda long but it's so much better than the zoom. My district's so fun so class isn't bad. Elder huntsman is my goat!! He has no shame and asks the best questions. 

Third day basically felt the same as the second. We signed up for the field time instead of the inside and it's so nice to be outside. We played our pu-thais in volleyball and they beat us but we'll get them back today. They've been here for like 6 weeks so it's not very fair either. We had language class and normal class. I feel like I'm learning some stuff but I got a long way to go. I thought our Thai teacher had written out the full missionary purpose so we were working on it a Lil. Then I found out the entire freaking paragraph of symbols was only like half of the freaking thing so I got a lot of studying.

Today's my pday but I barely had time to write this email. We had a morning class and then had to grab lunch quick so we could make it to the temple. It was fun tho and we get 2 hours of volleyball later

I've been feeling the spirit like crazy the past few days tho. The lessons and scriptures really set the environment and it's been great the past few days.

Funny stuff

-Umm so I kinda locked me and my comp out of our room while we were showering. We got out earlier than everyone cuz we were meeting our branch president so we decided to shower but I didn't realize how hard I pulled the door and totally locked us out. Luckily I took a long shower and our roommates were back so it was chill

-  I hit on my sub by accident yesterday. She was talking to a few elders abt their girlfriends before class so I figured I'd ask if she had boyfriend when asked if we had any questions at the beginning of class. Only thing is I kinda just asked Are u dating anyone and it did not come out how I meant it haha. She's getting married tho so it's good

Miss you all. It's super weird I'm not gonna be back in Heber for 2years but I'm super excited to serve the ppl of Thai in a few months 

Love u guys

Elder hansen 

Ps. I'll include a scripture next week but I don't have one ready rn  

Domnul să te aibă-n grija Sa

 Bună bună!!!

Highlights:

- Member visit with Sora Banița. She's literally my favorite. Last week she sat next to me on the stand because we were both giving talks and whispered to me that we needed to come over. We had homemade Shaorma and a dish of her own creation, Hot Ice cream. It was divine 😋 

- We had an inactive member, Sora Letinu, come to church last Sunday, so we decided to go visit her with the Frandsens. 

- District activity!! We had the missionaries from Brașov come down to Ploiești! It was super fun! We did morning sport all together (soccer!!) Then we helped clean up a graveyard, had lunch, district council, finding and then dinner!! 

- During the finding, I went with Sora Baril to try and visit an inactive member. The Elders had talked to her and she was wanting/expecting us, but she wasn't home. But her neighbor, Mihaela, was and she actually asked us about the Book of Mormon. So we shared it with her, got her number and invited her to church! 

- Met up with Cristina!! We talked with her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We shared first about faith and repentance. We then told her we had already seen her apply these principles. It has been so cool to see the change in her these last few weeks. Then we talked about baptism, the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. We shared with her that baptism is not some one time grand event, or something we have to be perfect to receive. Rather baptismal covenants and the gift of the holy ghost are the tools you use to become better and better each day. We then told her that we know she is prepared for baptism. This is the next step for her. We then invited her to consider moving up her baptismal date from October 30th. She was really excited and told us she would pray about it. 

- Got to also visit Sora Șimon!! She was admit to have us over this week, and it was a great visit!

Funny: 

-At games night Teo went crazy here's his convo with Sora McCombs...

Teo: McCombs would you rather eat a pig baby or baby matter? 

McCombs: What??! I don't understand what your trying to say.

Teo: ohhh wait. McCombs would you rather eat a pig baby or a matter baby.

McCombs: What's a matter baby?

Teo: I don't know what's the matter with you baby

We all lost it. 😂

Gând Spiritual: 

Well most of you probably know, but for those who don't, this was my last full week in Romania!! This Wednesday I will be flying home!! 

You always hear the cliche that missions fly,  I rolled my eyes at it, but now here we are and I can't believe it. 

So to close I feel I share the similar sentiments as Ammon when he said in Alma 26

11) But Ammon said unto him: I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God.

12) Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

I am so thankful for my mission and the time I have been able to serve with the Lord here in Romania. I know that He has strengthened me and guided me to do this work. I am so grateful for Him and the joy I have been able to feel in being an instrument in His hands. 

I'm also so grateful for the love I've felt and feel for these beautiful people. Growing up I always remember watching "The Other Side of Heaven", and the scene when Elder Groberg leaves, and everyone sings, "God be with you till we meet again". It makes me tear up everytime. Before serving a mission I wondered if I would ever have experience like that. Loving a place and people that much so far away from home. 

Well yesterday the announced the closing hymn was "Domnul să te aibă-n grija Sa". I started crying before we even got through the intro. I love the people of România, and I will be forever grateful for my mission and all those I've met along the way!

Thank you all for your love and support! And for following along with all my adventures!! It means the world to me and I am so excited to see you soon!! 

Vă iubesc din toată inima mea!!

-Sora Hansen