1 - 07/08/13

Blast off

Well, this is it folks. I´m not sure what I should say. I feel like I should write something inspiring.

This week was incredible. A good way to finish the mission. On Wednesday morning we got a phone call from President Fortuna. My comp is going to train! I am so proud of my kid. He´s going to be a great trainer. That means that all of Friday was spent going to Tegucigalpa and 8 hours in the bus.

Saturday we went to a zone activity in the other city in Olancho. Its called Juticalpa. We had a Zone activity, and then a rescue activity. We were there all day, and we got a ride home from the district president. We got there just in time for the baptism of "DM". He asked me to baptize him. I was humbled by his request, and of course I accepted.

Sunday was the confirmation. Once again, I was asked to confirm him. It was an amazing spiritual experience. I felt the spirit in me and it was by far the strongest I´ve ever felt the spirit in a blessing. Way cool guys. I also gave the opening prayer, blessed the sacrament, shared my testimony, and I gave the gospel principles class. Yeah, it was a busy day.

Monday we went to Tegucigalpa again. This time we went to Picacho, the giant Christ statue that overlooks all of Teguc. It was a little surreal for me. I remember flying into Honduras and the flight attendant told us to look out the window to see it. Time has flown by so fast. Yes, pun intended.

In summary, I can´t believe that my mission is over. Today is my last day of work. Tomorrow we wake up at 3am to head over to transfers. I´ll go to the temple and have my exit interview. Then on Thursday at 1pm I´ll be heading home on a jet plane. Crazy huh

Well, the mission has been the best thing that has ever happened to me. I have been the biggest convert, and I know that everyone says that. I have learned more about my Lord and Savior. I know that He loves me. I know that we can be cleansed from sin and we can find peace and purpose to our lives through the Gospel. I will always remember the good times that I´ve had here in Honduras, and I will always have my name tag tattooed on my heart.

See you all very soon. Love you tons

Elder Hansen

2 - 07/01/13

Man, this week has been AWESOME!

I´m pretty stoked about going home. I miss my family.

And yes, I´m still working, and I´m only a little baggy or trunky

We started the week off with surprise interchanges with the other elders. They aren´t doing their job, so I took one and the ZL´s took the other companion, and we left and worked with them for 2 days straight. They don´t get along, they are opening an area, they aren´t studying or planning at night, and they don´t have any progressing investigators. They aren´t finding any new investigators, so pretty much they´ve wasted these past 4 weeks. We told Pres that it might actually be better to take them both out and white wash the area again. I was sad, but its the truth. I talked alot with them both, and took them aside, and tried to teach more with my example than with words. I made sure that we had 2 really spiritual days full of work, and we did. It was good, but in the end, they returned to their bad habits. They´re obedient when they have someone babysitting them, but without the babysitter they return to their bad habits. Maybe one day they will understand the Doctrine of Christ.

I mentioned to "DM" that I was leaving in 2 weeks. He didn´t know. He told his cousin that he wants me to baptize him. His cousin is in the District Presidency, and he told me to go and challenge him to be baptized. He accepted, and this Saturday he´ll be baptized.

He came to church for the first time on Sunday. I had to get special permission from Pres Fortuna to baptize him, but he says to go for it. He knows more than half of the members because his wife and children are members for years, and his cousin is a leader in the church. It was really cool, and its nice to know that I´ll be finishing the mission with a bang. We´re going to baptize a family! Woo Hoo!

I realized that my mission is a lot like the morning jogs that we do at the field by our house. Its always hard to start, and you start off with a lot of enthusiasm and energy. Afterwards, it starts to hurt, and you have to pace yourself and get into your rhythm. Once you get in the rhythm, it starts to feel really good, and you like it alot. Whenever I get on the last stretch of the jog, I always go all out and sprint the last part. I feel like when I started my mission, I was super excited to be here. It was hard to get into my groove, and painful at first, but in time, it felt good. Now I feel like I´m in the last bit of the sprint. The end is in sight! I´m so close, and I know that even though its hard, I´ve gotta give it my all.

Well, I love you all, and I´m excited to see you in 10 days.

Elder Hansen

3 - 06/24/13

This week has been a great week. 

We had some amazing lessons this week with our investigators. We challenged everyone to come to church, and they all promised to us that they would come. 

On Saturday, we had an activity with the branch where we left with the members to go do visits to invite less actives to come to church on Sunday. We visited a lot of people, and it was awesome! It felt good to work side by side with the members to help them meet their goals. 

On Saturday, I felt the best that I have in a long time. Things were looking really good for Sunday. 

On Sunday, our investigators didn´t come to church. It hurt a lot. I told myself that I shouldn´t have gotten my hopes up. Somethings never do change. It was hard for me, because it guarantees that I won´t be able to see their baptisms. I have a lot of love for Familia Mejia, and I was really hoping to do what everyone told me was impossible. 

Afterwards we were pleasantly surprised to see that a lot of people came to church. We´ve been averaging about 60, and we had 100 people come!  It was incredible. We had a few investigators show up late, which helped ease the pain a little. I realized that it´ll all be alright in the end, and that this isn´t my kingdom that we are building. This is the Lord´s kingdom, and even if I´m not here to see their baptisms, I´ll know that I was a tool in the Lord´s hands for helping them get to there. 

The broadcast was really cool. I enjoyed it, and the Elders here are all really excited to use facebook to teach the gospel. I´m not sure if they´re going to implement it in our mission right now, but we´ll see what happens. Well, I won´t see it, but that's okay. I got super excited and then my comp laughed at me and reminded me that "el fin sea cerca Elder Hansen." (Translation:  "The end is near, Elder Hansen.") 

Well, I´m going to go and have lunch with the District. I love you all, and I love being a missionary. I´m going to endure to the end and work my little fanny off. See you soon!

Elder Hansen

4 - 06/17/13

It is really not 4 weeks, its 3 and a half, or if you really want to count, its 24 days. 

Yeah, its pretty weird. 

This week was pretty cool. We had a leadership meeting in Tegucigalpa. Yup, another 8 hours in bus. Luckily I didn´t get puked on this time, and I had some nice time to talk with the Zone Leaders and get some advice on how to help the district. There are some things that are holding the other elders back from being obedient. There´s going to be lots of interchanges this week. 

Things are going a lot better with my companion. We´re talking alot more, and I´m learning how to handle these situations. I almost blew up on him on Sunday. I managed to hold in my anger at church, and I told him he was going to get some when we got home. Luckily for both of us, home is 30 minutes walking, and I was able to blow off some steam and calm down. Rather than yelling at him, I calmly asked him why did he directly disobey. He told me he was going to go to the bathroom with another Elder, and he ended up leaving church and going to a members house. He did it last week, and I told him not to do it, so I was frustrated. He told me that he caved under peer pressure, and that he felt terrible about it, and that he was sorry. It went alot better than if I would´ve just started yelling. So the lesson learned is ask why they did what they did, and then explain the consequences of bad actions. I was proud of myself that I handled it well. We hugged and went to work. 

This week was a good week for work. We had some really really powerful lessons with our investigators. We tripled our number of progressing investigators, which is AWESOME! Everyone in the branch tells me I have to finish with a bang, so hopefully we will. We should be baptized a part member family that everyone told me that he would never change. Turns out he did 

Things are looking good in the district as well. I´m really excited. 

It is weird to be where I´m at. I love the mission. Its hard to say goodbye. I know I´ve still got 3 more weeks, but for those who´ve served missions, they know that 3 weeks goes by sooooo fast in the mission. 

We´ve got branch conference this weekend. We´re going to be working with the leaders on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday to try and have a big turnout. If we can consistently have 100 for an assistance, they´ll start to build us a new chapel that is also closer to our area. It would change the 30 minute speed walk to a 3 minutes speed walk. We´re excited 

We had a huge turn out this week. Its the most since I´ve been here, and we´re hoping to not look back and just keep on climbing. There is an excitement here, which is really cool to see. 

Well guys, I guess that is about it for this week. I found a really cool scripture that I like. Maybe you´ve already read it, but if not, enjoy! 

Isaiah 64:8

I love you all. See you soon

Elder Hansen

5 - 06/10/13

Since the last time I wrote you guys, so much stuff has happened! This week has been crazy!

So last P day, after writing, we decided to go to the overlook of the city of Catacamas, which also happens to have a giant white cruz with flashing lights. It was a nice little climb with a ton of stairs. We got all hot and sweaty and took some pictures. It was fun, but it wasn´t as fun as today.

Today we woke up at 5:30 to go hike to a waterfall. It was AMAZING! It took us over 3 1/2 hours to get there, and we were planning on it only taking 2 hours, so that was a problem. The falls were gorgeous, and I had a really good time. It was nice to break out of the usual routine and fortify our friendship with the other Elders in the district. We found a black snake with yellow stripes by the side of the river. It was already dead, but I picked it up and turns out that it was about 6 and 1/2 feet tall. Yup, it was big. I think just about everyone fell on their butt at least once during the hike. We hiked back in an hour and half, and mostly that was because we decided to follow the real trail and not go trail blazing. Our ¨guide¨ is the ward mission leader of the other ward.  He told everyone that he´s done it a million times, and that he knew where he was going. Yup, he had no idea what he was doing. But it made it alot funnier to be honest, and when we were going home we found the real trail, and it made the hike a lot easier.

In other news, we had a baptism on Saturday! "S" got baptized! Wooo hooo! Its our first here in Catacamas, and it won´t be the last! This area is known for not baptizing, so it was nice to break the mold and help a soul come unto Christ. He bore his testimony and everything, and I´m so proud of him. Elder "J" baptized him, and I think Elder "J" was more nervous than the person being baptized. It was funny to me, but also really cool. I´m proud of my kid. He´s a good guy.

On Friday we had interviews. President told me 3 times that the end is near. What the heck man! Ha ha ha, I love President Fortuna. He´s a great guy, and he gave me some great advice. I´ve got to finish the mission feeling the spirit really strong so that I can take that spirit home with me. So true, so true.

Well, I love you all. I hope you have a great week this week. Don´t worry, be happy

Elder Hansen

6 - 06/03/13

This is weird.

Last transfer...

I guess this is it huh?

Well, Wednesday we had transfers. We now have sister missionaries in Catacamas, which is awesome. Sister "P" was in my district in my last area, and she´s a super hard worker. She extended her mission, so she´ll be here 3 more months to finish training her companion. She´s a beast, so I´m stoked to have her here.

Its been really wet here lately. My shoes are almost always covered in mud. But I like it because it's a little bit colder than it was before.

On Wednesday I had a really cool experience. I got to be a butcher and kill chickens! I chopped off its head and then held it down while it flapped around like crazy. You know everyone has heard of the expression running around like a chicken with its head chopped off. Well, they don´t really run, they just convulse. Its kinda sickening, with the blood and everything. I had to take a step back because I almost fainted. That was a new experience for me, and I guess it runs in the family. I wrote it down in the journal and we took some pictures.

We´re working our butts off here in our area. I´m really warming up to my comp, and he´s helping me to keep my mind off of home. I´m honestly not trunky or baggy. We´re really focused on reaching our goal this month. Its 20, which is more than double the average. Last month we got 12, but we´re pretty pumped to get 20 this month. We´ve got 14 dates with more in the oven. Hopefully I can finish my last month by actually meeting my goal. It´ll be a first and a last for me. Sweeet.

Well, I love you all. Take care and see you soon

Elder Hansen

7 - 05/27/13

I´m wet.

The rainy season was supposed to start a month ago. Well, it started yesterday. It's been fun sloshing around in the mud these last two days. Its funny because right before it rained it was hotter than normal. I got burnt, and then came the downpour. That's so funny to me. Only in Honduras.

I had some cool experiences this week. I got to see a wild hog. They smell worse than Tanner and I during Christmas break! They have a hole on their backs that releases a gas whenever they get mad or feel threatened. It is sooooooo gross! But yeah, one of the families we are visiting bought them and they´re going to eat them too. Yup

We had 2 trips to the big city of Tegucigalpa this week, and it was back to back. In total, 16 hours in a cramped bus. Luckily we didn´t kill anybody this time. On the way back from the first trip, I got puked on by the little girl sitting next to me. Yup, she covered me in chicken and mango smoothie. It smelled worse than the pigs. We were about 10 minutes into the journey, so I had to sit in it for about 4 hours. It was a lovely experience. Ha

Well, I kinda got after the Elders last week for being disobedient. One of the Elders threw in the towel on Friday. He´s on a plane right now to go home. He only lasted a month in the mission. I´m kinda sad that he´s going, but at the same time, we can´t change peoples agency. He simply just doesn´t want to be here. They also took out his comp, so they closed the area

So they might be sending sister missionaries to open the area. Changes are on Wednesday, but I won´t have any, I hope. If they take me away from my kid, I think it might break my heart. I guess then I´ll feel like Dad does with Institute.

Well, things are going great. I´m loving the mission, and I´m learning things every day. I was in charge of the branch on Sunday, and I taught a class about humbling ourselves to the will of the Father. We must be humble and submissive like a child if we are to inherit the kingdom. Eyes on the prize baby.

Elder Hansen