So this email is going to be SUPER short. We had zone pday today and I have hardly anytime to email.

This past Thursday we had a farewell meeting with President and Sister Samuelian. They're going home on the 30th :( Let me tell you, saying goodbye to them is way to emotional for my comfort! I love both of them so much and they have done so much for me and every single missionary in the OSM. I know that they were called of God, and I am so grateful that I was called to this mission because it's the BEST MISSION IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD AND NOBODY CAN TELL ME DIFFERENTLY. I'm excited for the privilege that I have to serve under two mission presidents. And I'm just as excited to meet the Tateoka's. God has incredible things in store for myself as well as the Oregon Salem Mission (which is the best mission on the face of the planet).

Love,
Sister Hanna

PICTURES: Saying goodbye to President & Sister Samuelian ~ This is the Keizer & Forest Grove zones. We all signed the flag

Hello from Woodburn!

Guys! This transfer was AWESOME! I'm serving in Woodburn in the Woodburn 1st ward in the Keizer stake/zone. My new companion is Sister Erickson and WE ARE HAVING SO MUCH FUN!!! I knew her when both of us were serving in the Bend/Redmond area, so when they announced at the transfer meeting that we were to be companions I could not contain my excitement! She's been out for 9 months.

I am LOVING it here in Woodburn! And we walk everywhere! A previous sister crashed the car twice, so it got taken away 😂 Walking was a missionary experience that I didn't think I would get! So I'm excited about it! And Woodburn is actually a city! Not small town like my last two areas were. Don't get me wrong, I love LaPine and Monmouth with all of my heart, but I FINALLY HAVE A WALMART! 😁 Also, in LaPine and Monmouth, we were pretty secluded with no other sisters to hang out with. It was lonely and boring sometimes haha, but here in Woodburn we're surrounded by other sisters! Sister Erickson and I, along with four other sisters went out to lunch today and went shopping at the outlet malls! Fun was definitely had!

This past week was a bit of a blur because of all the new people I've met and from trying to get used to a new area. But nonetheless, sister Erickson and I saw many miracles! On Wednesday we went to go see a new investigator named Matt. As we got to talking, he asked where I was from, so I told him Mesa, AZ. Come to find out, he graduated from Mesa High School in 1990!! WHAAAAT!? It's ridiculous how excited it made me, but what a cool experience! Matt is a cool dude. #instantbond #jackrabbitalumni #arehashtagsstillathing? #ivebeengoneforayearsomeoneupdateme

Another miracle we saw happened last night! We were doing what we call "phone tracting." AKA going through all of the contacts in our phone and calling the people we don't recognize. We called this one guy named Elli, and to our surprise, he was excited that we called! It turns out that he is a past investigator, and according to him the missionaries just stopped coming one day. Anyways, we talked about the scriptures, Thomas S. Monson and Joseph Smith. As we talked about all of these subjects I could hear the love and affection that he had for the gospel in his voice. And anytime he referred to church members, he would say "we." This guy already considers himself LDS! As he was talking, I felt that I should ask him about baptism. He said that he had been invited to be baptized by missionaries before, but nobody ever followed up. I asked him how he felt about baptism now, and he said that his heart filled with joy and excitement at the thought of it. Do you guys see where this is going?? So...we invited him to be baptized! Over the phone! AND HE SAID YES! A baptismal invite over the phone! It was such a cool experience! We're seeing him on Tuesday!

I'm so excited to be here in Woodburn! Good things are going to happen here, I feel it in my bones!

Also, shout out to my soul sister, Sister Munford, for saving her neighbor from a fire last week!

Love you all!
Sister Hanna

PICTURES: Sister Erickson ~ This is pretty much our companionship summed up in one picture ~ Monmouth Goodbyes, Sister Kimber Klopp & Emilie Varner ~ This is Lexi. She has a mission call to the Arizona Mesa mission serving at the Mesa Temple visitors center! She leaves in July and I'm so pumped to see her when I get home ~ Autumn Wilburn and her family ~ Brolin and Sarah Johnson ~ Cecily Hart

Hello!

Guess what? You got it, transferred. After being in Monmouth for 6 months, they're ready to get rid of me and pass me off to someone else. Haha just kidding, they love me here! (I say that with humility haha). Tomorrow I'll be transferred to my new area, and where that is, I don't know yet. In this mission you don't find out where you're going or who your new companion is until the transfer meeting. I'm excited to meet new people and experience a new area! I am sad though to say goodbye to so many people here in Monmouth. The weekend has been filled with lots of hugging goodbye.

Nothing much to report from this past week. All of our investigators are out of town for vacations and graduations, so it has been pretty quiet in this little town.

Here's something about the Oregon weather - it's nuts! Last week it was in the 90s and now it's in the 60s! Get it together, Oregon! It's a pretty common thing around here to say "just wait 5 minutes" when the weather starts to act up, because it'll change just as fast as it begun haha.

I'm anxious to see where I'll be transferred! Tune in next week to find out!

Here's a scripture that I discovered the other day:

1 John 1:5 - This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

Love,
Sister Hanna

PICTURES: Our district (featuring Elders Hebdon and Alger on the left, they're not in our district but as the zone leaders they were visiting) ~ Hermana Holt. She's super tall (I'm talking 6 feet 3 inches tall! She rocks it!!) and super nice and beautiful! ~ Said goodbye to Lorna! She's one of our eternigators (eternal investigator). I'm wearing a pair of her "Woody Allen glasses". It's a joke and how it got started I'm not sure haha! ~ This is our sisterhood wall up in the apartment. Every companionship who's served in the area is up on the wall along with the dates they served ~ One of the families in the ward lives on a giant blueberry farm ~ We have a cherry tree in our front yard. We went cherry pickin!

Hello!!!!!!!!

This past week has been unforgettable!!!!!! On Saturday we had a mission wide conference with President Russell M. Nelson!!!!! Holy. Heck. Getting to meet and shake the hand of an Apostle is like getting spiritually punched in the face. IT. WAS. AWESOME! At the beginning of the meeting, President Nelson took the time to shake every missionary's hand, which was almost 200 people! He is the sweetest, kindest, and funniest guy! I had an incredible experience at this meeting. President Samuelian suggested that we prepare for the meeting by praying and fasting that the spirit would confirm to us that President Nelson is truly an apostle of the Lord. So I decided that it would probably be a good idea if I did that. I had been praying and fasting the Friday before and the Saturday morning of the meeting that when I shook President Nelson's hand, the spirit would swell within my heart, confirming to me that he is an apostle. Well let me tell you...the moment I stood up from my seat to go shake his hand, the spirit burned within my heart, confirming to me Russell M. Nelson is an ordained servant of the Lord Jesus Christ! I didn't even have to wait to shake his hand! I had already received my witness by the time I got to him. I know that God still calls prophets, and I know that He will never leave his people alone or forsake them.

So! Now that you all heard that fun little Sister Hanna experience, let me tell you another one. As President Nelson was giving his closing remarks, he left all of us missionaries with a blessing. It included multiple things, like finding joy in our work and being safe in our travels. But my favorite was when he invoked a blessing of healing on all of our families, and my thoughts immediately turned to some family members who are in desperate need of healing and comfort. Tears filled my eyes as the spirit hit my heart, and I knew then that my family would be okay. The gospel is so real, and it is the medicine that will heal any broken heart!

Now obviously, I don't really remember any of the rest of the week because meeting the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles just blows all of it out of the water, haha. But! We did have zone pday today, and we hiked this beautiful trail up to what is called the Cascade Head. Upon reaching the top, you get this breathtaking view of the coast line and horizon! As much as I hated the mile trek up, it was absolutely worth it! Pictures to come :)

I love you all!

Sister Hanna   

PICTURES: Hiking Cascade Head

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day!

Sister Ottesen and I were invited to a BBQ today by a member in our ward. There was tons of people there! And after everyone had eaten, we played a game of softball, which I was SO pumped to play! I miss softball! It felt good to put on some pants and get a little dirty! And I owe a big thanks to Sister O for letting me drag her out to the field and watch me while I played with everyone else. I was actually able to spend Memorial Day the same way that I would've if I were at home!

So we had zone conference this past week! It was bittersweet though. It was President and Sister Samuelian's last zone conference :( At the end of the meeting, President and Sister Samuelian each bore their testimony, and of course, everyone was crying! President talked about having a vision for your life, and Sister Samuelian talked about the desires of your heart. One of my favorite things that President Samuelian said was, "You were foreordained for eternal life. Go claim your prize!" I'M GOING TO MISS HIM SO MUCH!

So every week, we have family home evening with a part member family in the ward. The mom and the kids are members, but the dad, Anthony, isn't. But every week he comes to church and he participates in FHE every time because he loves being with is family, and wherever they are at, he wants to be there too. It's so precious! Anyways! For FHE we watched Johnny Lingo! (Don't worry it's on LDS.org, I'm not an apostate missionary). Anyways, remember the part where the two ladies are talking about how many cows their husbands bought them for? And the one lady says, "I myself am a four cow wife!" Well, after the movie, Anthony said, "My wife is EASILY worth 100 cows!" And then he pointed to each of his four daughters and said, "And She's worth 100 cows, and that one is worth 100 cows, she's definitely worth 100 cows, and I'll get 100 cows for her too. I am a rich man indeed!" It was so cute! He'll get baptized someday, haha.

Okay here's something funny! The other day we were visiting one of our members who lives in an assisted living facility. While we there, one of the staff came in for something, and then she turned to us and said, "Okay, this might be weird, but can I ask you guys a question?" Being missionaries and automatically assuming it was a gospel question, we readily agreed. Then she asked us, "Why does one of you have to get out of the car and back the driver up all the time?" When we explained to her that it was a way to prevent accidents she said, "Oh good! I thought it was a weird religious thing!" It was so funny, but in my head I just thought, "Wow, people really do think Mormons are weird!"

So the other day I read a talk given by President Thomas S. Monson at a BYU women's conference. He talked about how we need to stop waiting for tomorrow to happen, and to live each day in the moment. He said, "Find joy in the journey."

GUESS WHAT! We are having a mission conference with President Russell M. Nelson on Saturday! I'm pretty sure it's every missionary's dream to be serving and have an apostle come visit the mission! Our meeting with him is from 10-12 Saturday morning, but we are to be at the church building no later than 9 am because President Nelson wants to meet and shake very missionary's hand! GUYS. I am freaking out. This is insane. I can't even. In the words of President Samuelian, Russell M. Nelson is "one breath away from becoming the next prophet of the church." ..........AHHHHHH!!!!!

That is all for this week!

Love,

Sister Hanna  

HI.

THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME! I know I say that just about every week, but really. This week = AWESOME! We got 7 new investigators this week! God was just throwing miracles at us left and right!

My favorite thing that happened this week happened on Friday. We were eating lunch and our district leader, Elder Gillespie, called us to see how our day was going. Just before he hung up he said, "Sisters, I promise you that if you will take courage and OYM (open your mouth) today, you will find a new investigator before the day is over." So that night, we OYMed the crap out of people! We talked to everyone that we crossed paths with. We were walking the neighborhood when we saw this guy sitting outside of his house, so of course, we stopped to talk to him. As soon as we started talking to him I heard in my head a voice that said, "This is him! This is your new investigator." He was so nice and friendly, and the more we talked, the more and more I felt that we had found "the one" that our district leader had "prophesied" about, haha. As we continued to talk to Terry, we learned that he has a ton of family in California that are LDS, and he can remember spending the summers with them when he was younger and going to primary and attending other church activities. AND! He remembers that he was always fascinated by the Book of Mormon! We asked Terry if we could come back and teach him more, and he readily agreed! We're seeing him on Thursday!

Sorry that the email is so short this week!

Mosiah 15:30-31 Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Love,
Sister Hanna

PICTURES: Exchanges ~ Zone Training Meeting

Hello people!

Lots of good things happened this week! Here's my favorite: So sister Ottesen and I have been going through all of the contacts in our phone and trying to find new investigators out of former ones, and also just cleaning it out and trying to figure out who the heck all of the people are in our phone. We texted this one guy who's name we didn't recognize. He replied, asking us if we were sisters serving in Salt Lake. So we told him no and that we were in Monmouth, OR. When he replied, he expressed how happy he was that we had gotten into contact with him. He told us that about two years ago, he was attending the military academy at WOU in Monmouth when he was approached by two sister missionaries with whom he had had a very nice discussion with. After leaving Monmouth, he moved to Salt Lake where he then joined the church and has since been endowed in the Salt Lake City temple! How SWEET is that!!!!! He expressed to us how grateful he was for those two sisters and that he has been incredibly blessed since joining the church. We were able to give him the names of the sisters who were serving here at that time so he could try contacting them through Facebook. He told us that he would be ecstatic if he would be able to contact those sisters and thank them. This was such a neat experience to me! It proved that really no effort is ever wasted when it comes to sharing the gospel! You may not always get the result that you are hoping for when you share the gospel, but you are planting seeds that will be harvested in the future. It reminds me of a quote by President Monson, "The good you have done, the kind words you have spoken, the love you have shown to others, can never be fully measured."

We also got another new investigator this week! He was a referral from one of the ward members, and he had no problem inviting us into his home! His name is Arnold, and we're going back over tonight to teach him the Restoration.

This past Tuesday was also our ward talent show! It was so fun! One of the best acts was a comedy bit by brother McCallister. Brother McCallister has no legs due to an accident he was in when he was
little. You all should google this guy, his name is Kacey McCallister and he's an incredible motivational speaker and he does amateur wheel chair racing. He's awesome! But anyways, he did a stand up comedy act where he pretty much made fun of himself for having no legs. But the best act by far was by Bishop Duncan! Bishop Duncan, as he describes it, is a "closet Elvis impersonator." You would never guess it, but he does an Elvis impersonation that is crazy good! It was hilarious, and I got it all on video!

Here's a cool quote I found the other day; "Real, personal sacrifice never was placing an animal on the altar. Instead, it is a willingness to put the animal in us upon the altar and letting it be consumed!" -Neal A. Maxwell.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,
Sister Hanna

PICTURES: I asked for a tag picture with her in the background. This is what I got, lol