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