Flight Plans, Christmas Devotional

These pictures are compliments of Sister Swenson's blog...Thank You very much for sharing!

-Aubry the blogkeeper

Hey everyone! There is so much to write about this week so I hope that I can fit it all in in time. First of all.....we got our flight plans of Friday!!! Holy smokes it was one of the happiest moments to date! We weren't for sure if they would come on Friday, but they sure did!! I was with my companion and Sorella Crandall and Hughes and we rounded the corner (coming back from lunch) to get to our hallway where our class room is and the anziani yelled at us from down the hall waving these white papers at us and we all just started jumping and hugging. ha ha I realize now how completely ridiculous that must sound but just trust me...it was a very happy moment indeed! So in a week from this very moment I'll be on my way to the wonderful land of Italia! Holy smokes I can't believe this is happening. Sometimes it's still hard for me to grasp that I'm a missionary! Seriously I just never in my life planned on being here and doing this and now it's happening and I dunno...it's just crazy! Here's my schedule just so you know when to be home if you want a call. ha ha I leave Salt Lake at 8:20 a.m and get to Dallas/Ft. Worth at 12:05 and I'll be there until about 5. So I'll have five hours to call home. I don't know if there's time changes or anything but I'll be calling sometimes during that block. Maybe I'll plan on like 2 or 2:30 just in case we get delayed from Salt Lake. Any who, from there we fly to London and will be there for about 3 hours until we catch our flight to Rome, Italy baby!! Woo!So as you probably know, this last Sunday was fast Sunday. And it was our last fast Sunday here in the MTC. I remember one of the first Sundays here was a fast Sunday and also the last Sunday before the older district left. I can't believe that it's our turn now. So our whole district went up and bore our testimonies in Italian. It was really cool. Also earlier that day, I got to see one of my good friends from high school. Her dad has a calling here (now I feel bad that I don't know what it is) but she was here visiting on Sunday and I got to talk to her for a bit. It was really cool. And I got to see another friend the week before...her dad is a branch president here I think. So I got to see her and meet her fiance. It was way cool to see them one last time.Yesterday was our last TRC experience. Sorella Millis and I really planned for it and really wanted it to go well. We had to teach the second lesson in Italian and talk about tithing. It was really cool because we got to talk with our favorite person. We taught him when we were here for about a month and he was just so nice and wonderful to us so it was so relieving to be able to teach him again. In the middle of the lesson he gave us a really sweet compliment about our Italian and I dunno...we were just so excited that we got to teach him our last time and that it went well.We got to watch the Christmas Devotional on Sunday with the first presidency. It was so good! Seriously it was just what we needed and it was amazing. I hope that some of you got to go or watch it because it was soo cool. I loved seeing the conference center all done up and hearing from the First Presidency of the church. It was so cool. And was just a great ending to a great Sunday.So I wanted to talk about something else real quick. This last week was one that was bound to come for a while now. It was really hard. I gained a new understanding of how Satan feels about me being here. It was the craziest thing. I don't really know how else to describe it. I just learned that Satan really really doesn't want us here, and he really doesn't want us on that plane to Italy. But then in class, our teacher, Sorella Birdsall, was talking to us about Charity. We were breaking down the scripture Moroni 7:45. And we each had to take a phrase in that scripture and study it and break it down. Well I was assigned the phrase "rejoiceth in truth" and I found the gold mine of a scripture in 2 Nephi 9:40. It was really cool. I wish I had my scriptures with me to quote it but you'll have to look it up. Anyway the part that I thought was most incredible was when it was talking about how the words of truth come from our Maker. (I hope this explanation doesn't sound has awkward as it's sounding to me ...explaining it) But I thought it was cool that if we can recognize the source of where every thing's coming from, we'll rejoice in truth, we'll love it, and we won't be shaken. SO the moral of the story is...in everything that we're feeling and thinking, we've got to recognize the source. If we're charitable and we recognize a truth, that God is obviously the source of, it will be our pleasure (and we'll rejoice) to be a part of it. So don't read into any of this. I know for sure that I'm supposed to be a missionary and that I'm supposed to go to Italy. But it was just perfect that I got to learn more about charity and recognize that I'm not doing any of this alone.Well holy smokes this work is amazing. Sorella Swenson and I were talking about being missionaries and she was like, "You know what? Being a sister missionary must be the best kept secret in the church. Because there's no way to even describe how amazing it is to be here and be learning all of this." I completely agree. I love being a missionary. I love being Sorella Hansen. I know that Satan doesn't want any of the missionaries here going to their missions because he knows - 1. what this gospel will do for other people throughout the world and 2. what this experience is going to do for us as people. He knows we'll never be the same afterwards and he wants to deprive us of this experience. But to me, that's just a version of testimony. He's really just bearing his own testimony that this church is true. I'm not going anywhere though!...except Italy. I love being a missionary. I love reading the scriptures and studying with my companion. I think the scriptures get cooler and more amazing everyday. I love you guys. Be safe. And I'll see ya latas!

Sorella Hansen

2 Nephi 9:40

O, my beloved brethren, give ear to my words. Remember the greatness of the Holy One of Israel. Do not say that I have spoken hard things against you; for if ye do, ye will revile against the truth; for I have spoken the words of your Maker. I know that the words of truth are hard against all uncleanness; but the righteous fear them not, for they love the truth and are not shaken.