The Spirit, the prophet, and my pioneer ancestors. Where would I be without them? Lost.

Two years ago today I reported tot the Provo MTC to train for my mission in Mesa, Arizona.

Every single day I'm grateful I served.

I love my mission!

I'm so grateful for the people I got to meet, teach, and love along the way.

The elders I served with in the MTC get home this week! I'm so excited for them to come home! And my best friend Chase comes home tuesday! I'm so excited to see my buddy again. We are going to play and play and play!

This week has been extremely emotional for me.

Friday morning there was a shooting. Shootings are always terrible, but this is the worse I've ever heard of. A shooting at an elementary school. Sandy Hook elementary school. 26 killed. 18 kids, 8 adults. I won't even go into how crazy the shooter must have been. He was angry at his parents so he killed them, then he killed other people in the school. I can't imagine.

18 children dead. I can't imaging sending my children (ok, I dont have any so let's say nieces or nephews) off to school, hearing there was a shooting, and finding out my beloved little princess or prince had died. I would have no more will to live. I heard about it all and I just cried. I cried and cried and cried.

Thank goodness my sister came over soon after we heard about the news.

I hugged my sister and we both just cried.

I played with my Gracie lots and lots and lots.

We drew, we printed out pictures of us for her room, we twirled, we danced, we pretended we were princesses. (Yes, my ankle definitely hurt the entire time!)

So with everything that had happened, I was just in a gloomy doomy mood all day. Plus my pain meds weren't really working that great so I was in pain, plus the meds made me sick. Not a happy combination.

Then we went to the Mormon Tabernacle choir Christmas Concert.

I got carsick on the way down, we sat in an awkward place for me to sit so I was uncomfortable, and I was just in a lot of pain. So I was not happy.

Then about 2 minutes before the show started, the prophet entered the room to take his seat. We all stood. I (once again) bawled my eyes out. I felt so much at peace. There are 4 times in my life I have felt a complete overall peace go directly from head to toe- 1)when Elder White gave me a special blessing last January 2) When I prayed once for a friend 3) When my dad gave me a blessing before I went in to get my surgery (funny side note... I totally wrote a will before I went in cuz I thought I was gonna die from going under! Ha! But after my blessing I knew I wouldn't I knew I had much more to do something told me “Don't worry, you have more work to do” and 4) when I got to see the prophet the day of one of the worst shootings ever.

I am so grateful for the Holy Spirit and the peace it brings me.

When I saw the prophet walk in, he was smiling and waving and he was just so happy. If he can still smile, so can I. I am so grateful to have a prophet on the earth who can lead and guide me. I don't know how I could get through life without prayer, church, the scriptures, and knowing there is a prophet on the earth to let me know exactly what I need to do. I know as I am obedient to him I will be blessed.

The program was so beautiful.
Then they spoke about the candy bomber. (long story short) Gail Halvorsen would drop candy down on the kids in Germany from his plane to help them be happy during the war. He got many others to help and they ended up with like 20 million tons of candy for these kids going through a rough time!

Then they brought him out! He was there! And he got to talk about his experience.

And of course, I cried some more.

The other thing that just brought me to tears as I was watching the program was just thinking about the pioneers. I am preparing for the days of 47 pageant and as I am preparing I am reading and learning a lot about my pioneer ancestors. They were INCREDIBLE! I always say “I don't know what I would do if I were them. I don't know how they could handle all of that.” But they were still happy. They still danced, sang, and had families. I know if they were happy, I can be happy too.

I'm grateful for the Holy Spirit, my pioneer ancestry, the prophet on the earth, and how much they all help me to be happy.

I realized I really need to work harder on my Pay it 4ward program. I hope to get in to at least 5 schools this next semester and I'm planning on doing many many more pay it 4ward programs. Every good deed I do increases the spirit of righteousness and throughout the whole earth and decreases the power of the adversary. It says so in my patriarchal blessing and I fully intend to fulfill that.  

Surgery

So I had surgery.
I was born with an extra muscle in my ankle, many people are born with it, but I kept injuring the tendons around it and they couldn't heal because the extra muscle crowded the tendons. So, they just took it out!
Here are photos!
The red thing is the muscle they took out

Frankinkankle!!!

Down Time

So I had surgery this past week on my ankle which has left me with a lot of down time.

Life has been in one word- draining.

yes, it's been fun. yes, it's been crazy. But that one word really sums it up.

As many of you know, things are a little crazy here in the Hansen household right now. My mom has been sick for about a year, my dad has recently had a fairly serious knee surgery, and I had surgery last week. We're a pretty pitiful group wanderin' around these here parts.

But in my down time, I've been doing a lot of family history, reading, thinking, and of course watching a lot of TV. Here are some of my thoughts.

*Love has almost nothing to do with marriage.
                  I think if one variable can sum up how great a marriage will be, it's commitment. I have been head over heels in love with boys who have not been committed to me. I have been somewhat in love with a boy who was very committed to me. Didn't end up with any of them, but I'm pretty sure I would've been much happier with the man that was committed to me.
Hopefully someday I'll find a man who's very committed and very in love with me but still.
I think you can be in love with someone who you would never be happily married to. and I believe love has a lot less to do with marriage than the movies make it to be.

*my english is kinda terrible.

*sweating the small stuff is SO not worth it. you just make everyone else angry.

*Karma is really just the world Paying it 4ward.

*Obedience is easy. disobedience is hard.

I think that's it for now. I have lots more to say. but it will stay in my brain.

loves
stace

Being a missionary is so much more fun without the name tag!

Honey! I'm hommmmee!!!
Ok, so no, I didn't come home to any honey... but I AM home!
And I am LOVING being a missionary here at home!

I can't put a lot of my experiences up because they're personal to people I am around all the time now, but I will share some quick ones with ya'll.

I love working with the Elders and coming to lessons with them!
I've been able to help with one man, Robert, in our singles ward. He's now baptized and I'm so happy for him!
I got to go to General Conference with the Elders and an investigator, Jimmy. Really nice kid! I know he can turn his life around!

A quick note from my journal to explain my feelings:
Oct 21, 2012

Today was one of the happiest days of my life. I invited this guy Amos to church and to temple square and he actually CAME! He is from Liberia (which is near ghana) and I was stoked! Ahhhh he says he's not interested in being baptized, but he loves our faith and what we teach and wants to come to church with us once a month :) 

So how did I meet Amos? at Smith's! Missionary work is so easy! People want to hear more about us, all we have to do is open our mouths!

I have a good friend who is coming back to church and she is also doing awesome (she went inactive for 6 years and now is coming back) it is so rewarding to see the changes she is making! She used to be so sad all the time, and now she is happy more and more! I love her so much! 

One of the things I really love about it is how much my ward is supporting her! At ward prayer, when we were thinking about who needed prayers, one of the girls said shouted out my friend's name1! OTHER PEOPLE IN THE WARD ARE SUPPORTING HER! I am so happy.

One of the girls from my home wards' moms also asked me to help out and make sure her daughter has friends, problem is she lives far away. I feel so bad. I wish I could help everyone. But I've realized if I really focus on helping just a few people, I really can make a big difference in peoples lives. I dont have to change and help THE WHOLE WORLD. I just have to change a few peoples WHOLE WORLDS. It really makes a huge difference.

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

and I love my life!

more posts to come!

love ya'll!

Stace Face

He gets good looks from his mom, his stinkyness from his dad, and his super powers from his aunt!

Me and my friend Marie

RS Witch's night out!

One of the best days of my life! Lagoon with my best friend Nelson!