Is Anybody There?

Where have all the months gone? It has been so long since I did a post that I couldn't even remember my log in! We really want to keep in touch with the all the missionaries who served with us in Sacramento. Not exactly sure of the best way to do that.

Life has been moving right along for us. Our family is growing, up to 14 grandkids now, another due next week and then number 16 late in May. We keep busy with Church callings, work and family. Just the other day President Hansen said...."be sure and get a message to all the missionaries reminding them to take full advantage of General Conference". So consider this your reminder but I don't know exactly how to get message to everyone!

General Conference is a very special opportunity and it truly is our hope that you and yours will be uplifted, guided and inspired as you listen carefully to the words, counsel and testimonies of our dear prophet, President Monson, and those who serve with him. What an incredible blessing to have a prophet to lead and guide us. Quite often I think about the fact that President Monson is not just "our" prophet but truly belongs to the world. The sad thing is that most do not know we have a prophet on the earth today. I guess that is where we all come in.......we need to share the good news with others.

We send our best and want you to know that the Lord loves you and so do we!

Take special care,

President and Sister Hansen

PS If you could take a second and leave a comment it would help me know if anyone is looking at this? Thanks.

Coming Up For Air....

This will be short and sweet with a promise for a real post soon. Isn't there something in the scriptures about not running faster than you have strength? That's kind of where I have been lately and some things have been neglected (i.e. this blog). School starts tomorrow and I can't believe the summer is gone! The months, July and August slipped right by without nary a post only a few random thoughts that I needed to get something on the blog.

Hope you all had an enjoyable summer. We enjoyed some good times with our family when everyone was in town except our missing four, Justin, Brenley and their two youngsters Jorgen and Shelley who spent the summer in Malaysia. We missed them so much. Miles and Siena returned from their year in Tajikistan and I turned in my TJK calling card for a Malaysian calling card. Justin did an internship with an international company and will return for his second year in Stanford's MBA program.

We were pleased to hear from some of you. Elder Nikandrov sent a graduation announcement and the picture included was of him holding his brand new son and daughter........twins! WE now have several missionaries who are parents of twins.......four sets I can think of right this minute! If I can find the picture (we are remodeling our house and it is a MESS!!) and figure out how to scan it I will put it on this post.

I am an advisor to a Lamba Delta Sigma sorority at the U of U Intstitute and it is fun. The girls are wonderful but it takes alot of time. RUSH is this week and we have something on the calendar every single day. It is a great program and I think the principles/values of Sisterhood, Spirituality, Scholarship and Service are absolutely so timely and inspired.

Your mission president is busy as ever being bishop and it is exciting because we have so many of our young men either on missions or leaving very soon. He has really made that a focus and the Lord is blessing our ward abundantly. We will soon have about 13 missionaries out and our ward is not a large ward.

Hope you are all still having your own personal missionary experiences. For those of you in Utah wasn't the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication today wonderful? The Spirit was so strong and we were very inspired by the talks and focus on the blessings of the temple and temple work for the living (that's us) and dead (our ancestors).

For those of you still in school hope this year gets off to a great start and for the rest of you we also hope that all is well in your life.

P.S. I couldn't scan and download the picture of Elder Nikandrov and his twins so I attached on of a friend we met in Switzerland.....one of the locals.

Finally Home Again!

So much for a new post at the beginning of the month. We left the USA on May 18th and just returned late the night of June 13th. We are still dealing with "jet lag". President Hansen, myself and our daughter Melissa met our son Miles and his wife Siena along with Siena's parents in Germany. We started planning this trip last September and it has been a major endeavor and work in progress. But all our plans came together and we made the phrase, "planes, trains and automobiles" along with cruise ship, ferries, buses, Metros, lots and lots of walking and Hertz rental vans a reality! Just getting 7 people from point "A to Z" for that many days was a major accomplishment!

The main purpose of our trip was to visit St. Petersburg, Russia, Miles' mission. Since getting to Europe is not a frequent event we decided to really make it count. We also spent time seeing family history locations in Denmark, Switzerland, Scotland and Norway not to mention of course St. Petersburg and many places in between.

It seemed the opportune time to finally visit Miles' mission since we have hoped to do so since his return in 2004. Miles and Siena were on their way home from studying Farsi (Persian) this past school year in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

One of the highlights of our trip was going to fast and testimony meeting in the city center branch in St. Petersburg. The Spirit was very strong and thanks to the translating skill of the elders we enjoyed the testimonies of branch members. Their testimonies were beautifully expressed and you could feel the love the Russian Saints have for the Lord, the gospel and also their gratitude for the Restoration. Many also commented on their love and gratitude for the temple (Helsinki, Finland) and the blessing of finally being able to attend the temple.

Even though it has been several years now since Miles' served his mission in St. Petersburg he was grateful to see a sister who he taught and baptized and find that she is still active and growing in the gospel. The saints in that part of the world face many significant obstacles. He also sensed that the branch had grown, had more young people and families in attendance and generally seemed more stable. Russia like so much of Europe, is a difficult mission. We wished we had more time because there were others Miles wanted to try and find and visit.

We were reminded that so much of the time we take proximity to a temple and all the blessings of strong, vibrant wards or branches for granted. For many throughout the world activity in the Church requires significant sacrifice.

Another highlight was visiting the Lutheran Cathedral (sorry I can't remember the name) in Copenhagen, where the original "Christus" sculpture stands. The cathedral itself is beautiful with high arches, white stone and many windows allowing a great deal of light to enter (compared to many of Euope's cathedrals). The Christus is the original of the one that stands in the Visitor Center at Temple Square in Salt Lake, the Visitor Center at the Oakland Temple and several other places. We had a small replica in the misison office in Sacramento. There was a special feeling in the Cathedral and the Spirit was very strong as we took time to admire the beauty of this piece of art but also contemplate the mission and Atonement of the Savior. A woman who worked there told us that she had taken President Monson on a tour of the Cathedral last year. We assumed it was when he was in Copenhagen to dedicate the new temple.

Now we are home we are doing our best to get back in "full swing" with all of our family, Church and other responsibilites. As of April, I have a new Church calling. I am an advisor to Sigma chapter of the Institute Women's Association at the Universtiy of Utah, Institute. "My" Sigma girls are wonderful and I feel like this calling will really be a blessing in my life. President Hansen is still Bishop Hansen (going on three years now) so we manage to keep ourselves fairly involved.

We hope this finds you and yours all happy and well....remember...ONWARD and UPWARD!

Moving Right Along!

This entry will be short and sweet! We enjoyed our mission reunion back in April. It was really great to visit with all who came and catch up on what's new in life. We had several "second generations" with us and we must say they are adorable. I had so much fun visiting that I forgot to take very many pictures. I will post a few of the ones I do have here. Hope all is well and that you are enjoying life. Until later.........

Here's the Other Picture!

General Conference and Reunion Time

Dear Friends,

March was a whirlwind and April so far looks more lake February as the daffodils are trying to make their way through several inches of new snow! The good news is I will dash to the slopes for one more outing one day next week. I will go alone as President Hansen does not ski, especially with less than two weeks to the Boston Marathon which he will run on April 20th.

We dop hope you have an opportunity to enjoy General Conference this weekend and also hope to see many of you at our reunion tomorrow evening. It is an open house, 6:30 to 9:00, casual dress, light refreshments. We are excited to visit and look forward to hearing about what is new in your life.

Our wonderful senior couple, Elder and Sister Myers, recently made a trip to Sacramento for the baptism of a man who they began teaching over three years ago. They were thrilled to see the blessings that have come to him and his family as he prepared for baptism. I tried to post a couple of pictures of the Myers at the baptism with their friends Mark and Hillary but was unsuccessful.

As a missionary, in the midst of the hard work and sometimes disappointment, the seeds that are being planted and will someday come to fruition are not obvious. This experience was a wonderful "payback" for Elder and Sister Myers.

Many of you have shared with us your experiences of staying in touch with your converts. We think that is wonderful because lifelong friends and associations are forged. You can also continue to strenthen and encourage them in the gospel.

Take special care and we send our love,

President and Sister Hansen

P.S. Since my photos of the Myers would not upload I decided to add a little color and life to this post with a couple of pictures of a family outing to the Sugar Bowl in January. Miles, our son who is in Tajikistan for 11 months, was not able to join his dad, brothers and sis. I stayed in Dallas so I could enjoy our three little granddaughters for a few days. I did watch the game on TV and enjoyed cheering our team on to victory! GO UTES!

Mission Memories

A group of California Sacramento Mission missionaries gathered with our guest speaker Father Athanasios Paul, a Orthodox priest and friend who came to speak at one of our zone conferences. Elder Nikandrov and his companion met Father Paul one day while tracting. Father Paul's grandson, Chris, was baptized and eventually served a mission to Uruguay. Father Paul visited us, the Hansen's, after our return home in both Salt Lake City and St. George. Father Paul asked to have both Elder Nikandrov and Sister Vaikus in this picture since they were from Latvia and Russia. Unfortunately, most of our mission photos are not digital even though the office elders were always saying......"Sister Hansen, you need to use your digital camera." My reply was, "Elders, I don't have time to learn how....the mission is much too busy for learning computer/camera stuff." How I wish I had listened to the very wise office elders!