Zone conference!

Ciao amici miei!

First off, can I just say how blessed I am to know each and every one of you? I feel like I don't express my gratitude enough for the things I have, and among those is you guys! So thank you! You're all awesome, and I want you to know that I appreciate your love, your testimonies, and also the time you take to read these emails. Fantastic. That's what you all are.

#tb to pictures of going to Popoli (May 22, 2016)

Anyways! This week was great! It's been strange having a new companion after having been with Anziano Cowden for so long, but Anziano Martin and I get along just fine. He's a great guy, and an awesome missionary. Here's a few highlights from the week.

Zone conference! Zone conferences are always so much fun and so spiritually uplifting. We left Tuesday night so that we could have interviews with president in the villa. It feels like I was in the
villa just the other day, having barely arrived in Italy. But uh, it's actually been three months. Time FLIES out here. That's what happens when you're busy and working hard, eh? Anyways, we left Tuesday night, got to Rome around 6:30 and literally ran to get to the villa by 7:30. The Sorelle had their interviews, and then we had ours. WOW. I love president Pickerd! One of the things that hit me at the end of our interview when we were kneeling and praying together was his love for me. Just me. I'm sure he loves the mission and all the missionaries here collectively, but for that time I felt that he thought about and prayed for me specifically. It's a pretty cool feeling. He's got to be so busy with everything going on, so those few minutes where I felt like he was focused completely on me were something else. And from there it just spread. I felt not just his love, but the love of my family and friends. I came to an awareness of how they all love me personally, how much they care about me and hope for my well-being. It's an awesome feeling, knowing that you're loved. ITS COOL, OKAY?! Anyways we actually finished with our interviews around 9 ish, so the AP's came to the villa to take us to their place for the night. Gosh dang it I love the assistants. One of them said this: "We have two rules in this house. One, eat whatever you want. Two, sleep on whichever bed you want. If you want to sleep on the ones we use, just let us know." You might think he said it in a joking way, but no. He was dead serious. I mean yeah there's four other beds besides the one they were using, but just the fact that they were willing to move for one of us was moving. It was a day full of feeling love, if you hadn't already noticed.

The next day we got up and went to one of the churches in Rome for zone conference! And wow it was great! We focused a lot on our new mission vision, which is to be a consecrated, preach my gospel mission that teaches repentance and baptizes converts. We also talked about what it really means to walk with God. That was something president Pickerd had asked us to study in prep for him coming to Italy. We've specifically studied Moses 6:31-34

" 31 And when Enoch had heard these words, he bowed himself to the earth, before the Lord, and spake before the Lord, saying: Why is it that I have found favor in thy sight, and am but a lad, and all the people hate me; for I am slow of speech; wherefore am I thy servant?

 32 And the Lord said unto Enoch: Go forth and do as I have commanded thee, and no man shall pierce thee. Open thy mouth, and it shall be filled, and I will give thee utterance, for all flesh is in my hands, and I will do as seemeth me good.

 33 Say unto this people: Choose ye this day, to serve the Lord God who made you.

 34 Behold my Spirit is upon you, wherefore all thy words will I justify; and the mountains shall flee before you, and the rivers shall turn from their course; and thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me."

and also chapter 7. We've made it a focus of our comp studies to discuss how we can walk with God daily. We've set goals and made plans to accomplish these things. Still a study in progress, but we've already learned a ton thus far. We also talked about repentance and what it means to repent, all using
scriptures from the Book of Mormon. We started off with one person sharing a scripture, and from there we just had a huge discussion which included us jumping from scripture to scripture and talking
about what it means to repent. It was great! I would tell you all about it, but it'd take up all my time today, and I wouldn't even finish. Instead, I'd invite you all to have your own studies of repentance in the Book of Mormon and to discover what it means for you personally. I promise your testimonies will grow and you'll feel closer to your Savior as you apply the principles you learn!

Besides that, we had lunch, Anziano Martin and I sang (I don't know why they're having the Pescara anziani sing so often. Must be trying to remind me to be humble, lol😅), had an awesome teaching on inviting people to "come and see" (John 1:39)

"39 He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour."

by the assistants, said hi to everyone, and grabbed a bus back to Pescara for the night.

Another highlight of this week! We were just walking to the bus stop on Thursday night from our English discussion group when a guy steps out of his car and says "elders and sisters! I'm a member too!" His name is Josh and he's here visiting some friends from England. He's awesome! Both his friends live in Pescara, and we got to meet them too. This was actually a huge blessing for me because Thursday was a little rough. We had awesome plans for the day, but they all fell through. Every single one. And they didn't fall through in such a way that we could rely on our back up plans. It just resulted in a lot of waiting and finally being told they couldn't make it. Imma be honest,
in Italy, it's easy to sometimes feel like our church is super small. It's easy to feel like you're just a tiny voice shouting for joy amidst a sea of people yelling and shouting for fear and confusion. It's hard. But whenever it gets hard, Heavenly Father will always bless us with peace and comfort. He'll give us the reassurance that he's there, that this is his church, and that we are not alone - and sometimes he does that through an Englishman named Josh. How comforting it is though to know this church is global, and that there will always be people there to help us out.

Last highlight from the week! Yesterday it was Anziano Martin's birthday! Buon compleanno e tanti auguri a Lui! It was a tranquillo day. We did get to rollerblade that morning to centro though! We also
got pizza that night, and had some awesome experiences throughout the day. Per esempio, while walking through centro Anziano Martin felt like he needed to pick up that flyer on the ground. So he does, and someone asks "what's that?" Ended up talking to them for awhile, and it turns out they used to come to church! So we're planning on seeing them this week. When we follow promptings, or what we feel like may be promptings, who knows what'll happen? Let's follow them!

A few other things: President Uchtdorf came to visit the mission last week! 

"President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, second counselor in the First Presidency, and his wife, Sister Harriet R. Uchtdorf, visit the Rome Italy Temple site. (Photo by Tyler Harris, IRI)" 

(Source: deseretnews.com)

I didn't get to meet him, but I heard all about it. Also, all the members went up to Switzerland this week for a temple trip, and some of them brought us back Swiss chocolate😎❤️

All in all, it's been an awesome week. There's been a huge lesson I learned though, and it's that goal setting and accountability are important.

It's really easy to get stressed dealing with life. Out here on the mission it's stuff like having meaningful plans each hour of the day, getting up early every morning, having an infinite list of things to get done all the while feeling like there's not enough time to do it all. That's not even taking into account personal goals and development we want to get done. Where do you start? Do you just tackle it all at once? Just blindly begin somewhere? Nahh. When we try to tackle all these things like this, we become stressed. So what I've done this past week is I took some time during personal study and just sat there and thought about all the things I wanted to do. I went through and I made a list of almost everything. I had things I wanted to do this week, things I wanted to do this transfer, long term things I wanted to accomplish by the end of my mission, things for the day, stuff like that. From there, I analyzed the goals. Which ones can I control? Which ones are out of my control? Which ones need some fine-tuning? From there, I thought about which ones were the most important. What needs to be done as soon as possible, and which ones can wait? Then, once I'd prioritized and simplified them, I started with the first one. I thought about it. I prayed about it. I studied its principles. Once I did that, I prayerfully set a small goal. Just a small one. One thing I can do everyday to become who I know the Lord needs me to be. Baby steps. Then, at the end of each day, I accounted with the Lord. Did I accomplish the goal we set? Why or why not? If not, I commit to be better tomorrow. I ask for help. If I haven't reached the goal within a few days, I'll reevaluate and set a new goal. If I did, great! I then ask for the help to do it again tomorrow anyways, because I know the only reason I'm able to accomplish anything is because of the Lord, and if I ever forget that...eesh. I don't even like thinking about it. Anyways, you may be wondering why this is the spiritual thing I'm writing about today. I also wondered about that. But here's a quote from Elder Ballard that'll help clarify why I wrote about this. "I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life.” It's goal setting that helps us reach our full potential. I can't be quite sure, but when I think of the parable of the talents, I imagine that the two servants who doubled their talents had goals, while the one who buried his talent didn't. I'm sure we all feel like him sometimes. We have talents of our own that we've been given, and they're of great value. Priceless, in fact. But what do we do with them? If we don't have goals that we've set with Heavenly Father, we too will end up just burying them in the dirt until the coming of the Lord. Another thought on this: does Heavenly Father set goals? Personally, I think yes. We all know Moses 1:39.

"For behold, this is my work and my glory - to bring go pass the immortality and eternal life of man."

He has a vision in mind, and he's set goals that will help him accomplish it. Isn't that awesome? Goal setting is a divine principle that will help us become more like our Heavenly Father and draw nearer to our Savior, Jesus Christ. That's my invite for all of you this week! Set one goal! And don't just pick any random goal. Think about it. Pray about it. Study about it. Make it manageable, because remember, we are all still children that are learning. Baby steps. Then, carry it out. I promise that you won't regret it.

I'm hoping you'll all have a fantastic day and an even better week!

(Note from Anziano  Hansen's mum: I'm just going to post pictures from back in May when he went to the town of Popoli, because we didn't get any pictures from him this past week)

"Popoli! A member lives up here, and we went to see them two weeks ago."

"Is pretty dang cool, eh?"

"Forza juve! <3"

Che la gloria sia sempre a Dio

Anziano Hansen

Transfer three begins

My people! Life is fantastic, no?

First off, WOW. Talk about rain. Earlier this week it was around the 100s. But Thursday night, Friday and Sunday were filled (literally) with rain. It was so cold I had to wear a sweater. In the middle of
July. What is this.

Imma be honest - work wise, it's been a slow week. Piano piano, you know? But it's okay. We're working hard and showing Heavenly Father we want to help bring people to his gospel, and we are 100% confident that he'll bless us for doing so. Like I said last week, it feels like Italy is about to explode with missionary work! Why? Because the missionaries and members here are working hard, and the Lord blesses those who are working hard and dedicating themselves to the gospel. It's not what we deserve, but when we do what he's asked us to do, the Lord is bound to fulfill his promises. IT'S AWESOME.

Anyways. This week has been slow but still good. A lot of it was preparing for Anziano Cowden to head out, which was weird, but we did our best to get things done. AH. AND MONDAY. THE VATICAN.

YES. I need to talk about that first. Monday we got up super early to get to Rome
so we'd have time to do stuff. We got there around 10:15 ish and went to the church where we met all the other missionaries we were going to be with for the day. One of them was Anziano Beesely, Anziano Cowden's trainer. It was super cool to meet him! Anyways we get everyone together and do emails for awhile before we head out to get to the Vatican. On the way the groups got split up, and while trying to get on the metro, guess who got left behind?

If you guessed anyone other than me, you're wrong. I was left. Alone. In termini. One of the biggest stations in Rome. It wasn't that too terrible though. All I did was jump on the next train and hope someone got off at the next stop to look for me. They did. All in all, I was alone for about two minutes. Nah biggie. The big lesson though? Shove your way onto crowded metros if you don't want to get left behind.

We eventually all get to the Vatican and first off, the line to get into the city is super short, so that was a huge blessing. The biggest blessing though was meeting one of the nuns there who one of the other
missionaries knew. They'd talked to her in the past and the last time they were here she gave them a complete tour of the city and everything. Anyways we accidentally bump into her and she toooootally
saved our lives. Instead of paying €8 each and waiting probably 2 and a half hours, she took us right up to the front and sent us up the elevator without paying a cent. And guess what! She's Maori! I wanted to get a picture with her but we needed to go, but man...there are some good people out there in the world.

The Vatican itself was awesome! We took the stairs,

and instead of explaining everything, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

The dome of St. Peter's Basilica, designed by Michelangelo

The Pieta, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, Rome

"View of Michelangelo's dome and Bernini's baldacchino, a monumental canopy that covers the shrine of St. Peter. Made of dark bronze accented with gold vine leaves, it was sculpted from 1624 to 1633 under the direction of Barberini Pope Urban VIII, who oversaw the Baroque decoration of much of Rome. The spiral columns derive their shapes from the columns in the original St. Peter's Basilica built by Constantine, and legend had it that they came from Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem." (words cited from http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/rome-st-peters-basilica)

"You know, just reading the bom (Book of Mormon) in front of the Vatican. No biggie,"

Another awesome thing that happened this week: I got a new companion! Anziano Cowden left to Palermo, and while it was a tiny bit sad, I'm excited to be working with someone new. My new comp is Anziano Martin, and he's awesome!

Anziani Martin e Hansen. Anziano Martin is from Provo, Utah

Wow wow wow. I've learned a ton from him already, and I can only hope he learns something from me. And it's not to say Anziano Cowden wasn't great, because he was. In fact, he was exactly the type of companion that I needed. But now that I've been here awhile, it's time to change and get a new comp, and Anziano Martin is exactly the person I needed! He's a really hard worker and loves to be obedient, so it's going to be an awesome transfer. I'm honestly hoping I'll stay and do at least two with him, because I want to see the fruits of our efforts. Either way though, whether I stay for 6 or 12 more weeks, I know it'll be what God needs.

I also Skyped this week!

Not a very clear photo, but one of him with his companion, Anziano Martin in the background

What a blessing that was. Brought so much peace and happiness to my heart.

We asked Anz. Hansen to share his "introduction" with us in Italian. Loved it! :)

Missionary work is fantastic, but everyone needs a boost of happiness!

We also asked Anziano Hansen to bear his testimony with us in Italian. :)

And those boosts of happiness can come from anywhere - family, friends, food (obvs), sights, sounds. Heck even just taking a moment to sit back and think about all the things God has given us is enough to make anyone happy. Ain't that true!

And there's something this past week Anziano Martin have been talking about a lot this week. What is it? Oh you know, only the thing that's more important than anything else in the world. Any guesses? Just take a second and think about it for a moment.

Ready? Okay. There's one thing that matters more than anything else, and it's our relationship with the Savior.

(Photo source: https://media.ldscdn.org/images/media-library/gospel-art/new-testament/jesus-christ-39623-gallery.jpg)

Think about it. There are other important things, yes. Family. Education. Our well being. Things like that. But without the Savior, none of that matters. He's the one who makes all of it possible. If we ever base our self worth on anything other than our relationship with him, we need to stop what we're doing, evaluate our lives, and refocus on him. It's a hard thing to do no doubt, but when we recognize that he's the only thing that really matters, our lives become so much better. Recently I've been basing my self worth on things like my numbers, how good of a missionary I am, how well I keep the rules, how good my planner looks, stuff like that. But will any of that matter in a few years? No. Yes I'm here to help people to come unto Christ, but numbers aren't the things that get people to him. It's their relationship with him. It's our relationship with him. It's my relationship with him. That's what matters. It's the only thing that ever has and ever will matter. When our relationship with him is on good standings, we'll have peace in our lives whether we face mountains or valleys, whether we're rich or poor, whether we're sinners or not (and tbh we're all sinners and that's that), whether we have a good view of ourselves or not. The first thing that has importance in this world is our relationship with him. And guess what? He loves us. He's there for us. If any of you doubt it, there's two things I'd invite you to do. 1) read the Book of Mormon. 2) pray. Simple as that. Those are the two best ways to create a better relationship with the Savior of the world. And from there on out, do whatever you feel prompted to do. Though I don't know much, I know our Savior lives and loves us. I know he anxiously waits for us to draw near unto him so he can bear us up, so he can give us strength and peace. Above anything else, I want all of you to know he loves you individually. Punto. Basta.

Praying for all of you and hoping you have a wonderful week!

Che la gloria sia sempre a Dio (grazie sorella Francom)

Vi voglio bene! Sempre! (I love you! Always!)

Anz Hansen

Goodbyes and new beginnings

Well it's come down to this. We had transfer calls this week, and I'm staying! Anziano Cowden, on the other hand, is headed to Palermo! He's going to be with Anziano Ridd, one of the anziani from my MTC district. Anziano Martin will be my new companion, and I'll either meet him on Wednesday or Thursday. One goodbye. One new companion. It's sad, but I'm really looking forward to this next transfer.

Anyways! Besides that, nothing much has gone on this week. We did have a "groundbreaking" on Saturday for a new chapel that will be...renovated? We're not building a new building. We're just taking an old building and fixing it up. Not entirely sure if it was a proper ground breaking, but it was good nonetheless! President Pickerd and his wife came, and we got to talk to them for a little while, which was awesome. I really love the Pickerds! I do miss the Waddoups, but I know that Heavenly Father has called this man to lead this mission for this period of time, and I know he'll make great things happen, just as president Pickerd made great things happen. I really feel like Italy is just holding its breath before the church really starts to grow here. It's an awesome feeling, and it's an exciting time to be in Italy!

Pres. & Sis. Pickerd, Anziani Cowden e Hansen

"P.S. I didn't meant to be posing like a girl no hate" ;)

On Sunday we also went to see Massimo and Anabel, the two newest converts in this area.

Anziani Cowden e Hansen con Massimo e Anabel

They haven't been able to come to church for a few weeks because they're both working, so we fasted with them on Saturday into Sunday in the hopes that they'd either find new jobs or find a way to come to church. After the fast, we went to Giulianova

Source: http://w0.fast-meteo.com/locationmaps/Giulianova.8.gif

to meet with them and eat lunch together. I REALLY love them. They're awesome! They're from Venezuela, so we ate arepas

Source: http://picapica.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/53.jpg

(please don't hate me if I spelled it wrong) and the best fried chicken I've ever eaten! 

I want to say Anziano Hansen ate this (minus the fried chicken in the photo) 

with Massimo and Anabel. :)

They're such cool people, and they really love the church. It's hard for them in Italy, and they actually want to move to Argentina in a few months. But while they're here, missionaries will definitely be visiting them!

Sunday was a realllly weird day though. First, Anziano Cowden said goodbye to all the members and gave his last testimony in Pescara. It's weird that he's leaving. It really doesn't feel like we've been
here that long, but it's already been almost three months.

Friday night - Pizza night. 

Secondly, while we were on the bus to the train station for the bus to Giulianova, a fight broke out between an African and an Italian. Don't know why it started, but it was sketchy, and the bus driver just kept going. Everyone was shouting at him and he eventually stopped and they got off the bus and kept fighting, then got back on, then off, then on again. That time they got on towards the front and that's where I was, and uh, I didn't really want to accidentally get punched in the face, so I got off...aaannnddd so did everyone else. The cops showed up eventually and we just crossed the street to watch it all from a distance and wait for the bus to pass to Giulianova. Thirdly, we missed our train back from Giulianova to Montesilvano. There wouldn't be another one for an hour and a half, but I'm pretty sure Heavenly Father meant for us to miss the train, because we basically saved someone's life. We were just sitting there and a man from Senegal a few feet away lying down on a different bench started talking to us. Turns out, he was sick, and he'd been on that bench for a few hours waiting for help. He literally looked like he was inches from dying. It was also super hot outside, and he didn't have any water, so we bought him some. He'd called an ambulance awhile ago, but nothing showed up. We called though and they eventually showed up to take him to the hospital. Yup. Sunday was weird.

Other than that, we've just been doing a ton of finding. We actually don't have any investigators right now, but we have a few less actives, a couple members, and some awesome potentials that we work
with. It is difficult though when we go out day after day trying to find people to teach, but no one wants to listen. It's also really hard to not feel like I'm doing something wrong, to feel like I'm not
good enough, to feel like I'm failing because there's no visible evidence of people drawing nearer to Christ. I read something this past week though that blew my mind.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10. Paul, at this time, is talking about a weakness he had and how he sought the help of the Lord. Here's what the scriptures say.

"And he (Christ) said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

"Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong."

I thought a lot about the phrase "my strength is made perfect in weakness." I wondered how it's possible for him to be strongest when we are at our weakest. Why is it possible? How does it work? And while I don't know everything about this or how to explain my thoughts, but I realized that when we rely on Christ, our weaknesses become strengths. But first, like Paul, we must admit we are weak. That's something I struggle with. I hate admitting it. And yes, that's because I'm prideful. I don't like feeling incapable. I don't like that my imperfections are so blatantly obvious. But it's the humble
that the atonement and Christ have the greatest effect on. The words of a hymn answer this perfectly for me.

"Be thou humble in thy weakness, and the Lord thy God shall lead thee,
Shall lead thee by the hand and give thee answer to thy prayers.
Be thou humble in thy pleading, and the Lord thy God shall bless thee,
Shall bless thee with a sweet and calm assurance that he cares.
Be thou humble in thy calling, and the Lord thy God shall teach thee
To serve his children gladly with a pure and gentle love.
Be thou humble in thy longing, and the Lord thy God shall take thee,
Shall take thee home at last to ever dwell with him above."

Humility is the first. When we are humble in our weaknesses, Christ can work not just through is, but WITH us. His strength is made perfect in our weakness because when we are weak, his atonement can bear us up and He can take control of our lives. And when He is in control, WE become strong. We of ourselves cannot be strong on our own. We all have feeble knees and hands that hang low. And that's okay. But there has been and forever will be someone to lift us up. Yes I am struggling, weak, imperfect, prideful and at times lost. These things are a natural part of me, and while I work on becoming better, I will rely on the person who paid the price of perfection so I wouldn't have to. Through Him, with Him, by Him and because of Him, we can be strong despite our shortcomings. How great is that?

Anyways, there's not much else to write about, but here's some pictures to enjoy! Have a good week!

May the glory ever be to God

Anziano Hansen