New pilot program - 11/19/12

This week was a pretty interesting week. We had our fair share of surprises and experiences.

On Thursday we had a Zone Conference with President Fortuna. Before the meeting we had a small meeting with the leaders. He isn't very pleased with the work that is happening in the Zone and in the District. The truth is that the other Elders aren't working as hard as they should, and he told me that I should be more involved in their work. So it looks like I'll be leaving in a ton more interchanges these upcoming weeks. I'll be leaving in interchanges for the next four days to try and help them out. My companion isn't too excited about it, but that's life. The conference was really good, and I could really feel the Spirit there. It was nice.

We also were chosen to start up a new pilot program in the mission. There are about 10 pairs of missionaries that were chosen to start it up. Its a program that is currently in affect in Mexico, and it's having a lot of success. It's cool to me how Central America is the guinea pig of these new programs. Mexico was also the first nation to start sending missionaries at 18. Cool beans.

So the program consists of working more with the members. We aren't allowed to knock doors. Yup, all of our investigators are going to come from references. Its actually not as bad as it seems, seeing as how almost all of my converts were references. But yeah, the way the program is designed is to force the members to be more involved with the work. If the missionaries don't receive support from the members, they pull out the Elders and they'll put them in a ward that is working. There is a member in our ward who has a daughter doing this program. She has "killed" her last 3 areas, meaning that they didn't help them, so they pulled them out. It's an interesting idea, and we're excited to work more with the members. 80% of references get baptized, and 1 in a thousand contacts get baptized. Number wise, we'll be more efficient.

Today we had an activity with the mission president. He throws a party for the Elders that baptize a family. So we went to his house today, and that's why I'm writing so late. It was fun and all, but I got sunburnt on my nose. But it was totally worth it, because I scored 4 goals today in soccer.

The temple will be finished on December 6. The dedication is in June. I'm pretty stoked that I'm going to be here for the Open House and for the Dedication. Supposedly the Prophet is coming down. I think I might wet my pants.

Life is good. I'm happy. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Elder Hansen

Dinner Dash - 11/12/12

This week was a pretty cool week. Its starting the ¨cold season¨, but really its not all that cold. Showering is always fun, and my companion laughs at me when I let a little yelp out. The water is always freezing cold, so its fun. The good thing is that it helps wake me up.

I left on interchanges with Elder "L" this week. It was really nice to go leave with him. We used to be companions back in Pedregal, so it brought back a lot of memories. We taught some pretty powerful lessons, and he told me that he was impressed in how much my teaching style has changed. It was funny, because I felt like the Spirit was guiding me in that lesson, and to be honest, I used words, phrases and scriptures that I normally don´t use. It's really cool to feel the Spirit guiding your words.

On Saturday night, we had an activity. Bishop gave us invitations, and we´ve been giving them out to everyone. What we did was a dinner for less actives and investigators, with the guest speaker, President Fortuna (mission president). We gave out around 40 invitations, and a ton of people told us that they were going. We had 14 people show up, and we were shooting for 15. So I was pretty happy about that. We were in charge of giving out the food to all of the people there. I was a little upset at how we told the active members that this activity was not for them, and that we didn´t buy enough food for them, but as soon as the closing prayer was finished, about 15 active members showed up looking for food. And of course, they were first in line. In the end, we almost didn´t have enough food for the less actives and investigators. In the end, none of the missionaries got any food, but everyone else did. I was cool with not eating.

Out of those 14 investigators, only 3 showed up to church. We were kinda bummed out about that, but we´re not letting that get us down. We´re working hard, and we´re hoping to finish this month with baptisms. Thanks for all the love and support. You guys are amazing

Elder Hansen

An answer to prayer - 11/05/12

This week was pretty cool. We worked really hard this week, especially in contacting. The Zone is focusing on finding new investigators this month, so my companion and I decided that we would try and set an example and go to work.  This week we contacted like crazy. It felt really good actually and while we came home exhausted, we also came home content. Nothing like a good day's work.

Our investigators are doing pretty good. Right now we´re working on finishing a family. We baptized the mom, Hermana "F", and right now we´re working on her daughters. The dad is still hiding from us, but we´re hoping to get him out of the house with an activity that we´re going to have. On Saturday we´re going to have a dinner and the Mission Pres is going to come down and give a little lesson. So that should be pretty interesting. I´m pretty stoked to be honest, and right now we are inviting the entire world pretty much to come and eat free food. Hopefully we´ll have a big turnout.

My companion told me that we should pay one of our investigators to make us lunches. Its something that a lot of Elders do, but to be honest, I´ve never done it. It never really entered my mind because I like to eat and I like to cook. But he told me that we should ask Hermana "F" to do it. She´s been going through some really hard financial times, and was pretty down about it on Saturday. We could tell that something was wrong when we entered the house. So we told her our plan, and her face lit up. She told us that she has been fasting and praying to find a job to help support her family. It was really cool to be an answer to her prayer, and I´m glad that my companion recieved that prompting and that we followed it.

Life is going really good right now, and I´m loving every minute of the mission. Thanks for all your support.

Elder Hansen

Miracles are happening - 10/29/12

This week was probably one of the biggest weeks of my life. So much happened this week, and I´m not sure that I can write it all down today. So I´ll just try and focus on all of the big stuff.

My companion was called to serve in another area. I was happy to receive a new companion. It was a good learning experience, but I´m glad for the change.  His last few days, he just decided that he didn´t really want to work as a missionary. He only wanted to take pictures with the members and some of the investigators. We didn´t teach any lessons on Tuesday or Wednesday, and that was frustrating.  Another Elder in my district was also giving me some problems this week.  But he´s in his house right now, and things are alot more peaceful with him gone. He wanted me to give him permission to go to another area to ¨visit members¨ when I know for a fact he left a girlfriend there. Yeah, I told him no, and he wasn´t too happy about that.

In good news, this week I got to go to the temple. We gave service on Wednesday, and I was there all day long. It was pretty amazing, and because my companion didn´t want to go, we left on interchanges. But yeah, they gave us a tour, and I even got to go up on the roof. We helped put up painting for a few hours, and it was really cool. I could feel the spirit there, and it gave me the boost I was needing. The guy in charge gave me a piece of the painting, and now I have a piece of the temple to take with me.

My new companion is a solid 250 pounds, 6´3 of pure white man. We get along really, really well and he just finished training. I´m stoked to be with him. We´re working really hard, and its nice to have him here. Its funny to see peoples faces when they see the two white giants walking around. This will be a fun transfer.

I did three interviews this week and those are always special. After the interview of one of the investigators, she asked me who was going to baptize her. I told her that its her decision and that she could choose any of the members in the ward or one of the Elders that is teaching her. She asked me if I could do it. I was shocked and it really caught me off gaurd. I asked her three times if she was sure that she wanted me to do it and not Elder "M" or "Elder F". She said that she was sure that she wanted me to do it. My companion explained to me that night that she probably felt the Spirit really strong in our interview, and for that reason she picked me. Anyways, it was a really cool experience for me. After her baptism, she also broke down crying when she bore her testimony. We went to her house afterwards and shared a cake. We sang her, "Mas Cerca Dios de Ti", and once again she started crying. It's really cool to be a positive influence in peoples lives and watch the Spirit work inside of them. I´m glad that I´m making a difference.

I also got to bless the sacrament on Sunday. That brought back a ton of memories. I miss the Spartanburg II ward. But I´m glad I´m here, and I´m glad for everyone who helped me to grow up into the person that I am.

Thanks for everything guys. I love you all. Take it easy