Hello family and friends,

This week was pretty cool. We got to know our new district a lot more, Our zone leader is this big British guy, and his companion is an Aussie, so between the two no one can understand what they are saying 😂😂😂 It's rough. The Zone Leaders are also in our district, but they've been on exchanges a ton so I haven't gotten to know them as well.

Sister Seaton finally got her carpet in, so she's no longer living on concrete. We helped her move all of her furniture and she called us the other night and was like "I want you to come over and walk barefoot on my carpet and eat brownies" 😂😂😂 So we did, and it was probably one of the greatest moments of my life.

We've been doing finding activities a lot lately, which basically a nicer way of saying "we've been knocking doors in the heat all day every day". We've met a lot of interesting people, we met this one crazy dude last night and he talked to us for over an hour. I'm surprised he didn't fall over and die from lack of oxygen because I never saw him take a breath 😂😂😂 He was insane but he wants to make us some BBQ so I guess we're not done with him haha 😬😂

Earlier this week we had a mini missionary for a day and her name was Ashley. I think we scared her. She had never gone out with the missionaries before and she decided to come very last minute. She kept asking questions like "Wait... You do this all day?" and "Can you take naps?" and "You can't use Facebook?" No, Ashley. Missionary life is incredibly dull 94% of the time. But torwards the end of the night she perked up, I wonder if it was just because it was the end of the day and she knew she would be going home soon 😂 Before nightly planning we went through the drive thru at McDonalds and I bought us all hot fudge sundaes. We listen to really goofy songs and I just tried my best to make those last moments with her good ones, because it would kill me if I was the reason some one decided not to serve a mission. During nightly planning I read the section in Preach My Gospel about how "No effort is wasted", and did my best to explain that even though no one had let us in that our efforts were not in vain and that we accomplished a lot, and I thanked her for coming along with us.

Guys. Guys. Why has this realization taken so long? I'm finally figuring out how my talents & skills fit into missionary work. For some reason I didn't think they were applicable? I'm sure all of you saw this but I guess I missed the memo? I love to make people laugh. I love to brighten gloomy days, but for some odd reason I hadn't made the realization that it still applies here while I'm on a mission. Right? Right. I must be slow or something because I totally missed the boat on that one haha. _🙋🏼________🛳__

(That's me waving goodbye to the boat that is my life 😉😂) 

Anyway, I'm learning now that my sense of humor is one of the reasons God sent me here to Vegas. A part of the reason why I've been put in this desert is so that I can help people to learn to laugh! Little moments have been showing me how this all fits in to missionary work, but something I experienced on Wednesday really taught me how much my talents and skills are needed.

A while back a woman from our relief society asked if she could have us over for dinner. She has two daughters currently on missions but she expressed to us that her husband had stopped coming to church, and how she was hoping that we could help just by bringing the spirit into the home. It was a while before an opportunity showed itself, but on Wednesday we were able to eat dinner with the family. Dinner wasn't off to a particularly good start, when the husband arrived he looked at his wife and said "Sisters, what a surprise, I wasn't expecting you". He then told us about how he was considered "less active", and it was kind of a tense situation. Things started to change when a bright pink Barbie telephone starting ringing in the kitchen, with a loud "B-A-R-B-I-E, Barbie girl!" And I, with a completely straight face, not thinking, asked the husband "Is that your work phone?" And he LOST it. Like, he was laughing for at least 5 minutes, uncontrollably 😂😂😂 After that "incident" I continued to make jokes and he would continue to laugh, genuinely. The whole family was laughing, and it was a good time. We left the home and I expressed to my companion "I don't know how much that helped them, but it sure helped me- I felt like myself again!"

The next morning we received a text from the wife and it read: "Hi Sisters, thank you for your sweetness for my husband. I haven't seen him laugh like this in ages. I'm sure you reminded him of our daughters serving missions right now. I hope he returns to church. Would you like any help today?"

So yeah... Haha like I said I'm a little slow, you all have told me how funny I am and how I should never stop laughing but I didn't understand how that fit into my role as a missionary. We teach that our message is the same, that every missionary will teach the same thing if he is following the prompting of the spirit, but I guess that although the message is the same, the delivery is going to be different from missionary to missionary. We aren't all the same, and we aren't supposed to be! God gave us different talents and abilities, and we are here to use them! God puts us in each other's paths so that we can help one another, so that we can build one another up, and I'm learning that one of my ways is by making people laugh! I've learned that while I'm on my mission nothing happens by coincidence. Everything happens for a reason, and I know that God puts things in my path so that I can grow and learn, and also so that I can help others along the way. I'm grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve and to help others in whatever way I can. 

I know that God lives!

Also here's a picture of a Chicago dog a member bought me! It was awesome!

Love,

Sister Hansen