The Baptism Bells are Chiming!

Hi!!!!!!!

It was soooooooooooooooooo good to talk to you all last week! I can't believe how fast the time is going on my mission. Talking to you all just felt like another day at home, like I hadn't been gone for long at all. It was good to hear your voices. It sounds like you are all doing pretty well.

This week was an interesting one indeed. We ventured into a Russian hospital to get an x-ray of Sister Spjute's foot. Oh my goodness, that was terrifying. We didn't wear our name tags in there and STILL the women said, 'your just some sect sent here to try to convert us' and we had to explain that no, we were really there for an x-ray and that we were more than willing to pay for it. haha then we sat in the corridor and waited our turn while bleeding people passed by - very sanitary, I'm sure. It turns out that nothing is wrong with the bone in her foot, but they suspect arthritis. So, she takes a lot of ibuprofen and we continue to work to the best of our ability. Despite the couple of days we spent off of the foot, we managed to meet with a lot of people and see some success this week. Gulia (the one with Armenian background), last week, said she wasn't ready for baptism, but this week we went to meet with her and she immediately started talking about how she wants to get baptized, she received her answer, but she wants to wait until July 8 because that day has meaning for her. Hopefully I'll still be in Cheli in July! YAY! She wants to get baptized! She came to church yesterday and made some friends in the ward and then took us to her cousin's house after church to meet her cousin and teach her about the gospel...now her cousin wants to meet with us regularly as well! It was all very exciting; however, on Sunday, I was rather distracted all day because of a horrendous stench that seemed to follow me wherever I went. Now it is all very funny, but at the time I was rather traumatized.

Ok, so it began when we were at Gulia's teaching her about the word of wisdom. She happens to have a big fat, lazy cat who also likes to try to lay on my bag (I have no idea why, it's not even comfy). Anyway, usually, this cat is pretty low-key but on Friday, it was jumping around very excited about something. Come to find out, it had caught a mouse and was having some fun playing with it. Gulia couldn't see it from her side of the table so Sister Spjute and I just tried to hide our shocked faces and continue on with the lesson like nothing was happening. After a little while, the cat quieted down again and we were able to focus on our lesson. As our lesson neared its end, the dumb cat was laying on my bag again! So I put my bag on my lap, finished the lesson, prayed, and left. As we walked to our next meeting, we laughed about how shocking that was to see the mouse being beat to death and how Gulia was completely oblivious to the situation. (it's a good thing too, I'm sure she would have been embarrassed). Anyway, this all happened on a friday. On Sunday morning as I was putting my books in my bag, I realized that there was a really bad smell coming from my bag...so I took everything out and low and behold....at the bottom of one of the pockets in my bag...was a dead, squashed, rotting MOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!! oh my goodness, I almost threw up. We were going to be late to pick up Gulia for church, so I just threw out the mouse, put all of my stuff in my other bag and headed out the door. When I was in the middle of church, I opened my bag, and even my scriptures smelled like death. It was dreadful! I am traumatized! haahahahahahaha so gross.

Anyway, other than that, my week was great! My companion and I still get along great - I'm glad we can laugh together a lot. The church is true! Sometimes we are asked to do hard things, sometimes the Lord asks us to step out of our comfort zone, sometimes he asks us to sacrifice a lot...but all of it is meager compared to what the Lord Himself has already done for us. I am so grateful to have a knowledge of my Savior, to know Him personally. I love you all sooooooooooooooo much! I hope you have a great week!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
love always,
Sister Hansen

p.s I sent some pictures...probably really random ones. There was one of a typical mullet in Russia, on of the elevator buttons in an apartment building with gum all along the sides, etc...if you have any questions about them, ask and I'll explain next week. I'm running low on time. I love you!