Merry Christmas - 12/25/12

We were surprised to get this e-mail from Brett on Christmas day after speaking with him on the phone.  He is looking good (even with a super duper short hair cut) and seems to be extremely content and happy.  Here is what he had to say:

Its so weird to be in the mission during holidays. You do the same thing every single day, so sometimes you forget that its different from every other day.

Today was a really cool day. It was full of stress and problems, and I think that's just the way life is. But in the end it all turned out great. I got to talk to my family.  I got to show them my sweet hair cut that my comp gave me, and I even got to meet my sister-in-law. Cool beans. I´m pretty happy right now.

So we didn´t write yesterday because as the district leader, I had to take one for the team. There were 6 computers and 8 elders. I asked her to reserve us 8 computers, but she forgot, but that's okay. After the district wrote, we left for the temple. It was cool and all, and I took some pictures. I also got to see some friends from the other zones. Turns out lots of elders wanted to go to the temple for Christmas Eve.

In cool and exciting news, one of my fillings fell out and I got a new one put in. It cost me $40 to do it, and it was an adventure to say the least. But now its all said and done, and they´re aren´t any side effects from it. We also had our Christmas Activity with Pres Fortuna, and that was pretty cool. We had a gift exchange, and I gave away a little painting that I bought at a souvenir store. I recieved chips. Yup, it wasn´t that great, but one of my good friends was the one who gave it to me, so I won´t complain.

I left on interchanges with the Zone Leaders, and that was fun. I left with Elder "H", and he´s a nice chap and all, but to be honest, I really don´t like his sense of humor. He´s a great missionary and leader, but I don´t know if we´d hang out after the mission. Its just really funny to me, because the other ZL, Elder " E", is one of my best friends in the mission. Oh well, it's all good, and I´m really excited to be here.

I think that just about wraps up this week. Thanks for everything guys.  I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thanks for all the gifts, you guys make me feel loved.

Elder Hansen

It's the most wonderful time of the year - 12/17/12

This week was a pretty cool week. I´m starting to understand my area a little better, as well as the members, and things are starting to smooth out a little bit.

On Friday I drank 3 raw sea turtle eggs in a tomato sauce. It was absolutely disgusting, but they say that they are full of vitamins. She gave me 2 more to take home, and I tried frying it up in the skillet, but that didn´t work out too well. Turtle eggs are a lot different than chicken eggs, and to be honest, it was better raw. I still have one more in the fridge, and I´m going to drink it raw, but this time in orange juice. Hopefully it won´t kill me.

These past few days I´ve also had really bad gas. Maybe there is a connection between the turtle eggs and the gas.

The district is going really well. I have 2 pair of elders that are training and a sister pair. That's pretty exciting, and its really weird having sister missionaries. I´m still getting used to it. But I really do love my district. Each of them has a special place in my heart, and I´m really happy to be here.

On Thursday we have a Multizone Christmas Activity. We´re going to be doing a little skit of the Christmas Carol, and I´ll be the Ghost of Christmas Present. I´m pretty excited to see all of my friends that are in the other zones. We´re also going to have a present exchange, so it´ll be exciting to see what I get.

On Saturday we had a baptism of "HB". He is a really special 10 year old, and he´s incredibly intelligent. Both of his parents are teachers in the university, so I´m sure that helps. We played chess one time, and he almost beat me. His mom is active in the church, and his Dad is the kind of guy who thinks that religion is a crutch for the weak. We´re working with the Dad, and he´s been to church a ton. He just has a lot of doubts, and to be honest, he thinks that he is wise. I feel bad that his pride and so called knowledge is holding him back from the blessings of God. Hopefully we can help him change, and I know that all things are possible with God.

My companion is really cool. He loves playing soccer, so on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays we wake up at 5am to go play at the church for an hour. Its nice to change things up a little and get some fresh air.

 Life is going really great right now. I love you guys, and I´m grateful for this chance to serve. Thanks for the prayers, and I hope you all have a Merry Christmas

Elder Hansen

La Pradera - 12/10/12

So on Monday night I think I had one of the saddest phone calls of my life. The Zone Leaders called and the first thing they said was ¨We´ve got the changes¨ I felt my stomach drop, and before they even told me, I knew I was going.

My companion was upstairs washing clothes, and I walked up there and he said that my face was pretty depressing. I really, really didn´t want to go.

So I went and prayed, and immediately I felt a calm feeling coming over me. I know that everything is going to be alright, and it will all work out in the end.

The ZL´s asked for me to stay, and they also asked if they could stay. President told us that the Lord inspired him to change me and to change them as well. A cool thing that happened is that Elder "E" and I both left Torocagua, and we both went to Comayaguela. So he´s still my ZL, and its going to be great working with him.

President taught a really cool lesson at the changes. He said we can choose to be like Nefi y Sam, or we can choose to be like Laman y Lemuel. Both groups went to where the Lord told them to go, the difference is in the attitude that they had

My new area is called La Pradera, or the prairie. Its pretty big, and its in the Comayaguela Zona. Turns out that my area is right next to the temple, so I really like seeing it every day. This week they announced the date that the Temple will be dedicated, so we´re all pretty excited. Open House starts up in February, and the Dedication will be March 17. Chances are that I´ll still be in the Pradera in March, so I´m pretty stoked. Now we´re just waiting to hear if President Monson is going to come.

While I really don´t know my area that well just yet, I do know that it is really big, and that it hasn´t had very much success. This zone has always been a hard zone, so I´m glad that the Lord trusts me enough to send me here. We´ve seen several miracles this first few days, including that we put 3 baptismal dates when we really didn´t have anything going for us. I´m pretty stoked, and things are looking great. Hopefully we can meet our goal of 20 baptisms, which will be the most baptisms this zone has had in a couple of years.

My companion is Elder "A". He´s from El Salvador, and he is my 4th companion from there. He´s got a transfer more than me, but he is really cool. We get along really really well, so I´m excited. He comes from a family of 8 and the country, so its really good to have a humble companion. He shares everything, and I´m blessed to be here with him.

Thanks for everything guys. You´re the best. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Elder Hansen

Don't go chasing waterfall - 12/03/12

So this was the last P-day of this transfer, and there's a good chance a large group of us will be going. So for our last P-Day, we decided to go hit up a waterfall that I went to when I was in this same zone last year. It was pretty cool, and it brought back some memories, and this time I remembered to bring my camera. I'm attaching a couple of the pictures we took. It was tons of fun.

This week we also had a baptism! We had the privilege of helping a sister enter the waters of baptism. She's pretty freaking awesome, and it was really cool hearing her testimony after her baptism. She started investigating the church because of the change she saw in her mom (who's a recent convert as well) and she has gained a lot of friends in the church. Really, it was the YSA that saved the day and helped her to make this important decision. Members are the key to success in missionary work. The Elders can't do everything.

Thursday was a really hard day for me. We snuck out of weekly planning to go buy some chips at the store in front of our house. We found out that one of our investigators was killed, and that they left to go bring the body.  We've been working with him and his family. We baptized four of his brothers and sisters, and we were working with him and his parents. He was a gangster trying to get out and learn more about God. Sadly, he doesn't have that chance anymore. The police found his body Monday morning, but because his face was so badly disfigured, nobody could identify him. His parents found him in the morgue on Thursday. I can't imagine what they are going thru. We offered to have a funeral service in the church, and I ended up speaking. I shared Psalms 23, and talked a little about how he always smiled at us, and how he always was willing to listen to the lessons. I'm going to miss him. We're currently in the dry season, and it hasn't rained in over 2 months, but on Thursday it starting to rain. It seems like even the heavens were crying.

It's good to know that while we never could convert him here on this earth, there are better missionaries on the other side of the veil that are working with him. I'll leave it to God to judge, and just pray that he will accept it there.

I guess that raps up this week. We're starting the Christmas Season, and I hope that we can all remember what its really all about. I miss you guys, alot, but I'm glad that I'm here serving. Thanks for the prayers, I feel a lot better. I can't wait to talk to you guys in 3 weeks! Woo hoo! Take care

Elder Hansen

Make it work! - 11/26/12

This week was pretty fantastic. Not going to lie. I´ve made some friendships even stronger, and its been a blast. We´ve developed a new motto in the zone. Its from that white guy off of Project Runway. So now we are always telling each other to ¨Make it work!¨ It gets me every time.

We had a couple of exchanges this past week. Actually, we had them from Tuesday until Saturday, so it was pretty much the entire week. They sent Elder Timmins to go work with the ZL´s, and I got to be the babysitter here in my area. The other ZL went with all of the trouble companions in their own areas, and it was fun to switch things up and spend more time with the elders. They are really good guys, and I really enjoyed hearing all of their testimonies. It was a little weird doing all of the planning all by myself, but I got over it.

We were going to have a baptism this Saturday, but it was postponed.  She just told us that it´ll have to wait till next Saturday. I wasn´t too bummed, but the ZL´s are, and I think its because this Saturday was the last Saturday of the month. To me, its her baptism, and it should fit her needs/wants, not our desire to meet the monthly goal.

We finished this past month with 1 baptism in the district and 10 in the zone. I think its a record low. The good news is that we will have 7 this Saturday, so I´m not too bummed. You just have to always look on the bright side of things.

Transfers are on the 5th of December. I´m kinda bummed, because I´ll be saying goodbye to my trainer and 2 other companions that are ironically in my district right now. They´re all really good friends, and it´ll be weird not seeing them around. I´m trying not to think about it too much and just lose myself in the work. But I´m not going to lie, its hard to be making such good friends to just say goodbye.

I´m going to ask permission to stay in my area for another change. I´ve already got 4 1/2 months here, but I feel like I still have a lot of work to do. That, and my comp needs help to get to know all the members so that we can work with them in this new pilot program. The ZL´s agree with me, so they´re going to ask as well. They generally accept what the ZL´s say, so its a good chance I´ll be staying here. I was talking to the ZL´s, and they told me that they like the work I´m doing, and so does the President. That makes me feel really good inside.

So we´ve been humbled, and we´re happy, and we´re working. Thanks for everything guys. Be of good cheer.

Elder Hansen