Hi family and friends!

A lot of funny things have happened this past week! I'll start out with my favorite one. So we were trying to contact an investigator the other day, and their neighbor was outside so we asked him if he knew whether they were home or not. He had no idea, but we kept talking to him anyways. We introduced ourselves as the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Then the guy said, "Oh yea, I've heard of you guys. Aren't you guys the dinosaur deniers?" I couldn't keep it in and I just started laughing at the guy! Dinosaur deniers?! Hahahaha, I'm still laughing!

Another funny moment from this past week was when we went to visit one of our favorite ladies, Rose. She's 89 years and she has the greatest sense of humor! She is hilarious! So we were visiting with her, and at one point I started to try and sing the Hallelujah chorus from the Messiah...it was awful. And apparently Rose thought it was awful too because she looked at me and said, "You should get that fixed." And then she just stated laughing at herself! Sister Hart and I told her, "Rose! You are so funny!" And she replied with, "I know I am." Haha! And then later on during our visit I showed her a picture of a dinosaur from one of the books that she had in her room and she said, "Is that a hamburger?" Rose! She kills me!

All right, now for some more spiritual stuff. On Friday night, Sister Hartvigsen and I, along with some members in our ward and their nonmember friends, watched the live broadcast of the Messiah by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It was incredible! The only part of that piece of music that I've heard before was the Hallelujah chorus, which is awesome, but the rest of the piece is awesome as well! All of the singing parts are direct quotation of scripture, and the whole piece is telling the story of Jesus Christ. There was such an incredible spirit that filled the chapel as we all watched! I love that we can worship the Savior through music! I encourage all of you to watch the Messiah online, if you haven't seen it already. It's pretty long, but worth the watch. You can find it on lds.org.

Women's Conference was great! I love how the general message of the night was service. One of my favorite things said was by President Eyring. He said that our desire to serve others grows as we give gratitude for what the Savior has done for us. And that's so true! When we can recognize the goodness of God in our lives, the more we want to share that goodness with others. And the best way to share Christlike love is to serve and help others. The personal message that I received for myself during the broadcast was that I need to "get to work." I've realized that lately I've been feeling lazy, and also a little less happy. And I realized that it was because I was focusing more on myself than on others. This past Thursday was my nine month mark, so my family sent me "Hump Day" package. Inside was a poem that said something along the lines of how the first nine months were for me to learn and to grow, and now that I know how to succeed, the next nine are for those who don't have the happiness that comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is my job to find those people. I've reflected on that a lot, and it's definitely been an eye opener and a motivator for me. So thanks mom!

Easter Sunday was great! The members took good care of Sister Hart and I. We got Easter treats from multiple different people, and then we were treated to a ham and baked potato dinner. It was so good! One of my favorite parts of yesterday was when we were in the chapel waiting for sacrament to start, and I see this really familiar old man walk into the chapel. I racked my brain for his name, and when I realized who it was I immediately started looking for his wife. When I saw her, I went over and gave her a giant hug. It was the Hofmann's, an older couple who I was good friends with when I was in LaPine! It turns out that their son lives in the Monmouth ward! It was so good to see them, and such a happy surprise.

So I was recently chastised by my mom (not really, my mom is great!) for not writing about my investigators in my last couple of emails. We only have one, kind of solid, kind of not solid investigator right now. Her name is Lorna, and she's been meeting with the missionaries since last September. Her progression has been real up and down, but we FINALLY got her to come to church a few times, and she LOVED it! And she's also become very interested in family history work. Her progression is very slow, but we've got high hopes for her. The work is a little slow right now in Monmouth, but we're working hard to find new people to teach. We feel that we'll find a lot of people to teach amongst all the college students, we just have to find a way around the "no proselyting on campus" rule. Pray for us!

Well, that was a really long email! I hope all of you enjoyed your Easter, and I hope that you will all continue to celebrate our Savior and His triumphant victory over death.

Love you!
Sister Hanna

  

Happy Easter!

Hey everyone! This week flew by! Actually, it's starting to feel like every week is flying by. I can't believe I'm already halfway through my mission! What the heck, man!

Anyways, I've always liked the Easter holiday, but being on a mission during the Easter season has helped to increase my love of this holiday by so much! Easter isn't about fluffy bunnies and Easter egg hunts! All it is about is our Savior and the Atonement! "And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body,hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the
abominations of his people. ...And lo, he cometh unto his own, that salvation might come unto the children of men even through faith on his name; and even after all this they shall consider him a man, and say that he hath a devil, and shall scourge him, and shall crucify him." (Mosiah 3:7,9) We can't even comprehend what kind of pain and suffering the Savior had to go through, but we do know that He did it all for us. Christ is the only person who can say "I know how you feel" and truly mean it. Because of Christ and His Atonement, we can always, even in our darkest hour and most disastrous errors, look to the Son of God and live.

I love my Savior Jesus Christ! And I know that He loves me! I know that He died for me and for everyone else on this earth. And I know that He raised triumphantly from the grave and has taken away the sting of death. "He is not here: for He is risen." (Matthew 28:6)

I hope all of you will take the time to think of the Savior this Easter, and I pray that all of you will be able to experience the power that comes from using the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Happy Easter!

Love,
Sister Hanna

PICTURES: Monmouth Zone

Facebook post from Autumn Wilburn (Ward Missionary)

Hi!

This past week has been a pretty normal week. Nothing too exciting happened. We did, however, receive a referral that seems to be very promising! So this lady was referred to us from one of her long time friends, who is a member of the church. We went over to meet her and she opened her door up to us right away! We had a really nice visit with her and she told us about how she had been friends with these people for almost 40 years, and had talked about the church with them frequently throughout the years. However, she never attended church with them, and she said that she never felt pressured by her friends to learn more about the church. But because of these friends, this woman has a very good view of the church, and now she said that she feels like she's ready to learn more! President Gordon B. Hinckley said, "So many of us look upon missionary work as simply tracting. Everyone who is familiar with this work knows there is a better way. That way is through the members of the Church. Whenever there is a member who introduces an investigator, there is an immediate support system. The member bears testimony of the truth of the work. He is anxious for the happiness of his investigator friend. He becomes excited as that friend makes progress in learning the gospel. The full-time missionaries may do the actual teaching, but the member, wherever possible, will back up that teaching with the offering of his home to carry on this missionary service. He will bear sincere testimony of the divinity of the work. He will be there to answer questions when the missionaries are not around. He will be a friend to the convert who is making a big and often difficult change. … The process of bringing new people into the Church is not the responsibility alone of the missionaries. They succeed best when members become the source from which new investigators are found.” Members of the church have a HUGE influence upon their friends! And the work succeeds best when the members are involved in the investigators' lives.

So yesterday, Sister Hartvigsen and I had the opportunity to perform a musical number in sacrament meeting. Sister Hart sang and I accompanied her on the violin to 'Come Thou Fount.' I'm so grateful for the opportunities that God has given me to play the violin while being on my mission! Being here has helped me to better appreciate the talents that God has blessed me with.

So I can't remember if I shared this scripture last week or not, but I'm sharing it again anyways!

1 Peter 3:15 - But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you... . I love that! Always be prepared to tell people why the gospel makes you happy! And if you don't know why, I encourage you to pray about it!

Also! If you haven't seen the church's new Easter video, repent and do so now! Haha, but for reals, it's a good one, as they always are. And take time this Easter season to ponder on the Savior and the wonderful gift of His Atonement. You can view the video at FollowHim.mormon.org. Or if you google #HALLELUJAH I'm sure you will find it. I know the Savior lives and I know that He loves each and every one of us!

Love,
Sister Hanna

PICTURES: Our tiny district ~ We played Quidditch on Pday. Some of us had brooms, some mops and one had a hockey stick. But pretty much every one of us broke something on our stick, lol. Oh, I also got laid out by an Elder, knocked flat on my stomach! LOL!

This week has been so great! We did a lot of walking this week and we were able to talk to a lot of people. So, approaching strangers on the street is kind of awkward, so of course we have to come up with ways on how to approach someone on the street. This is done in the form of asking people questions that we already know the answer to, lol! A lot of the times we ask people, "Hey, are Monmouth St. and Monmouth Ave the same thing?" (They're not haha) Which then leads into "Have you ever met missionaries before?" But it's the best, non-awkward way to start a conversation! Another fun way to approach people is to ask them if they know a person from back home. "Hey, does Callie Shaw live around here?" People have no idea, because none of the people we ask them about live in Oregon! Haha, those Mormons! We're so sneaky. But, there's a point to this story. We were walking down main street the other day and we approached this lady and her two little kids. We asked her if she knew the difference between Monmouth St. and Monmouth Ave. We then asked her if she had ever met missionaries before. She said yes...turns out she was already a member! Sister Hart and I felt so dumb! But nevertheless, we played it cool.

The highlight of this week was on Saturday when I got to go back to Bend for the Manley's baptism!!!! This was the best baptism I have ever been to! It was so spiritual, and of course, everyone was crying. Brother Manley, who has been inactive since he was a teenager, was able to baptize his wife and son. He also got up and bore his testimony twice at the end of the baptism, something that I thought he would never do. The gospel! It changes lives! Just a few months ago, he wouldn't even consider baptizing his family because he didn't feel like he could be worthy enough to do it. But the transformation this family has undergone since I first met them back in July has been huge! The gospel has truly changed and blessed their lives, and I've never seen them so happy. The reunions were so sweet, and I got to see so many of the people that I had to leave in LaPine. I am so grateful to God that I had the blessing of being a part of their baptism.

Love,
Sister Hanna

PICTURES: Manley's Baptism ~ Awkward pose cause we can't hug him ~ I saw my baby (the greenie I trained) ~ Visiting the coast on Pday

Email from Goldie

Hi Mom!